Teana's Travels Book 28: Requiem
by D.K.N
Summary: Fresh from the war against the Reapers, the Master Chief, Cortana, Teana, and Commander Shepard investigate rumors of activity from the Covenant terrorist faction led by the anti-human Sangheili kaidon Jul Mdama. Following the intel, the quartet stumbles upon a Forerunner artificial world with an ancient secret buried within. But some secrets are better left buried...
1. Arrival

Sorry I can't think of anything witty to say. Here's Book 28.

**THE FOLLOWING THINGS ARE THE PROPERTIES OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS; I DO NOT OWN THEM AND MAKE NO MONEY OFF OF THIS STORY**

_Mahō Shōjo Lyrical Nanoha _(Teana, various other characters) – 7Arcs

_Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni _(Shion and friends/family) – 07th Expansion and Studio Deen

_Shuffle!_ (Kaede Fuyō and associated characters) – Navel and Asread

_Erika's New Perfume _(Marie, Sarah, Erika, Timmy, Veronica) – DeviantArtist 'Lance the Young'

_Mai-chan's Daily Life _(Mai, Kizuna) – Waita Uziga

_Star Wars _(Ahsoka, Cody, Rex, _Force Unleashed_ cast) – George Lucas, Lucasfilm

**_Halo_****(Forerunners, UNSC, Sangheili Alliance) – Bungie, 343 Industries**

_StarCraft_ (multiple characters, events, and devices) – Blizzard Entertainment

_Naruto_ (characters, techniques, abilities) – Masashi Kishimoto

_Mahō Sensei Negima _(characters, spells, abilities) – Ken Akamatsu

_Kingdom Hearts _(characters, weapons, enemies, concepts) – Square-Enix

_Neon Genesis Evangelion _(characters, concepts, tech) – Studio Gainax

_Elfen Lied _(Kaede K., others) – Lynn Okamoto, Arms

_Red vs. Blue _(The Blood-Gulch Crew, the ex-Freelancers) – Rooster Teeth

_My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic_ – Hasbro, Lauren Faust

_Transformers Film Series _– Hasbro, Michael Bay

_Transformers: Beast Wars _– Hasbro, Mainframe Entertainment

_Yu-Gi-Oh! _– Kazuki Takahashi, Viz Media

_Sonic the Hedgehog _– SEGA

_Gears of War _– Epic Games

_Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles _– Columbia Tristar (I think)

_Mass Effect _– Bioware

_Metroid _– Nintendo

_Puella Magi Madoka Magica _– Gen Urobuchi, SHAFT

_The Legend of Zelda _– Nintendo

_Tōhō _– ZUN

_RWBY _– Rooster Teeth

_Pretty Cure / PreCure_ – Toei Animation

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES

**-****_BOOK 28 START_****-**

**Realm H4-L0 – Mass-effect-based FTL, heading toward Epoloch system**

The stealth-enabled UT-47A Kodiak zipped through the stars, using its short-range FTL drive in conjunction with its stealth systems to quietly drop into the potentially hostile-bearing system in a way that the big, interdimensional-slipspace capable capital ship that carried it to this Realm could not. There was nobody in the pilot's seat; Cortana was plugged in and doing all the flying. In the troop bay were three people, fresh from the Reaper War and already heading into another potential battle. Commander Jason Shepard, hero of the recent massive conflict, had his personal N7 armor and war-gear ready, while First Lieutenant Teana Uchiha-Lanstar, head of the UNSC-jurisdiction special op squad Gamma Team (among several other lofty positions and titles), sat in her red with orange highlights Mjolnir Mark-VII armor, her Device 'Cross Mirage' in pistol form magnetically attached to her hip. Lastly, the tall, quiet, green-armored figure of MCPO John-117 sat on a reinforced seat, made to withstand the weight of his own Mk.-7 Mjolnir armor, carrying an M6H pistol, BR85 burst-fire rifle, and MA5D assault rifle.

They were coming all the way out here, to an uncharted system, to follow a lead: the potential coordinates of a 'meeting ground' for Jul Mdama's terrorist group. Mdama was a Sangheili _Kaidon_, the head of a city-state who could best be compared to an Imperial-Japanese feudal lord. He was also virulently anti-human, unlike the technical majority of the surviving _Kaidons_ and military commanders, who had since sworn fealty to Arbiter Vadam. Thought perished when the Flood took _High Charity_, he had escaped to an outlying Covenant colony world called Hesduros, and convinced/twisted the people there into following him in a 'second crusade' against humanity and the Arbiter-aligned Sangheili. There were a few different anti-human Sangheili-led terrorist/extremist groups still in the galaxy causing trouble, but most of them were small, stubbornly adhering to – and blinded by – their twisted religious dogma and sense of honor; already some had been quickly converted or annihilated by the Arbiter of the UNSC.

But Jul was very different. He was a reasonably adept tactical and strategic commander, flexible in his tactics, and willing to 'bend' the codes of religion and martial honor that so many of his people lived by; he had once attempted to destroy a Forerunner installation in order to kill a large group of humans trapped inside it, only barely thwarted by a team of Spartans. And he was a skilled orator, skilled enough that where most of the dissenting factions' leaders commanded fairly small forces, Mdama's organization was composed of two and a half colony worlds' worth of soldiers and material, including a sizable fleet led by his personal _Councilor_-class flagship, _Song of Retribution_. All this meant that while most of the few dissident anti-human Sangheili factions were little more than annoyances to the UNSC and the Arbiter-loyal Sangheili, Jul's group was a significant threat – one worth investigating.

"Lady and gentlemen," Cortana said, "this is your captain speaking. We're almost to the location identified by our intelligence operatives; ETA 50 seconds."

The Chief, Shepard, and Teana moved up into the cockpit, Cortana's avatar appearing to greet them. Soon, the Kodiak – its stealth drives enabled – dropped out of FTL, the forward holo-viewscreen coming online. The quartet found themselves looking at a fleet of nearly two dozen Sangheili-designed ships – _Purity_-, _Yermo_, and _Sanghelios_-class vessels with a _Councilor_-class assault carrier at the rear center of the fleet formation. They were all congregated around a nearby planet, which looked dark except for a few faint electric-blue glowing lines here and there.

"What are they doing here?" Teana murmured.

"Cortana," 117 said, "can you confirm the stealth drive is working?"

"Affirmative, Chief" the AI replied. "Our emissions are being completely suppressed. You want me to take her in for a closer look?"

The Spartan nodded, and the Kodiak silently accelerated, flying in amongst the enemy ships.

"I can't see anything of note here" Shepard said. "Maybe this is just a staging ground – a meeting place for discussing things with the other shipmasters, or a rally point for preparing to move somewhere else."

"I'm not so sure" Cortana replied. "These ships' holding pattern is different. It's almost as if they're searching or waiting for something, but I can't… Uh-oh."

"What 'uh-oh'?" Teana asked. "'Uh-oh' is not something you wanna hear in our position."

"Every Covenant ship in the system just started powering up light weapons. A few of the more distant ones are starting to come closer, and the ones closest to this shuttle are starting to point their anti-fighter weapons in _our_ direction."

"But how? Our emission-capture tech is working perfectly, right?"

"Yes, it is. I don't see how they might know we're here…"

"Oh no…" Shepard spoke up. "The stealth systems that the _Normandy_ and its shuttles use… they hide our emissions, but they don't hide the ship completely; we still show up in the visible-light spectrum! One of their ships' external cameras must've caught us!"

"Even so," the Master Chief said, "we're a tiny ship. The odds of them getting and keeping a visual lock on us out here are-"

Cortana abruptly lurched the Kodiak to the side, narrowly dodging a pulse-laser shot.

"…very, very high, apparently" the Spartan sighed. "Cortana, go hot! Take whatever evasive maneuvers are necessary, and get us out of here!"

"It's gonna be a bit before we can escape, Chief" the AI responded. "They're blocking our exit route; we'd need to get around the ships that are behind us now, and they won't make that easy! And, one of their battlecruisers just deployed a wing of Seraphs! Hang on, everyone!"

The Kodiak's engines roared to life, propelling the little shuttle through the space around the mysterious planet. Four Seraphs soon made visual confirmation on the blue-hued craft, moving in attack formation towards it. Soon, plasma bolts were fired, and Cortana juked the little ship around, the shields successfully withstanding the few bolts that hit but she didn't know for how long. The chase led the Kodiak closer and closer towards the mysterious planet, and once or twice they had to dodge a pulse-laser shot from a capital ship.

"This isn't gonna work much longer!" Teana said. "We have to find some way to get out of this before-"

Suddenly, something quite unexpected happened. A pane of yellowish-orange light came out from a point on the nearby planet, sweeping over the Kodiak. A couple seconds later, a circular portal opened on the dark planet's 'face', near-blinding white light shining out. The Kodiak and its pursuers shuddered and began to be pulled toward the light, along with some of the nearby Covenant ships; a couple of them, older ships with their shields offline, couldn't survive the strain and began to break apart as they were drawn in.

"We're caught in a gravity well!" Cortana announced. "This planet… it's a Forerunner structure – a Shield World!"

"I don't think the Kodiak can take much more of this!" Shepard said, feeling the increasingly strong unnatural shuddering of the shuttle. "There's only one thing I can think of to stop us from being shaken apart, and it might also give us some respite from the Covenant."

"We need to go _into_ the Shield World" the Master Chief agreed.

"Wait, we have no idea what's in there!" Teana said.

"You got a better idea?" Shepard asked.

"…No, I don't."

"Cortana?"

The Kodiak abruptly turned toward the open portal into the Shield World, flying fast; some of the pursuing Seraphs lost control in the gravity well, while the rest broke off as the human craft 'dove'.

"If I still had fingers," the AI remarked as the shuttle neared the opening, the viewscreen going white, "they'd be crossed…"

**-****_CHAPTER END_****-**

And there we have it – the start of another new little adventure. I was going to merge this with the next chapter, but I figured you guys have waited long enough. Next time: Team Chief sets foot on – or rather, in – the Forerunner Shield World.


	2. Requiem

Just a reminder: since way back in Book 1, access to TSAB-style subspace for her quantum matrices to inhabit and grow in means Cortana will essentially never have to worry about Rampancy. This will have an impact on this storyline in comparison to canon.

**SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS**

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES

**-**_**CHAPTER START**_**-**

**Realm H4-L0 – Unidentified Forerunner Shield World**

The Kodiak shuttle flew unsteadily downward, having leveled off and now looking for a place to land. She wouldn't stay in the air much longer, so Cortana – having shut off the forward viewscreen when the light became too bright for her organic charges – guided the stricken craft down into a small canyon, which was already littered with wreckage from a couple Covenant ships. The shuttle hovered in, its engines sputtering and seizing, and then dropped the final meter to the ground, landing with an unceremonious thud as its engines died. Soon the hatch was shoved open from inside, and the Chief – with Cortana now in his helmet –, Shepard, and Teana exited with weapons ready.

"Okay," Cortana said, "I'm pretty sure she'll never get off the ground again. Which means that we're kinda… stuck here."

"Where are we?" Shepard asked.

"Not sure" she replied.

"Well," Teana remarked as she looked up, "not many planets can say they have a ceiling. Or a 'sunroof'."

"It doesn't look like the Covenant fared much better than we did" Shepard said, looking around at the wreckage with a few dead Covenant soldiers mixed in.

"…Cortana, how many ships made it through the roof?" the Chief asked.

"Plenty" the AI replied. "Why?"

"We need a ride home."

The trio began to traverse through the small canyon, passing the wreckage from crashed Covenant vessels. Rounding a 5-meter chunk of metal, they found a Sangheili, a member of Mdama's faction, still alive but with a broken arm and a busted shield generator; the Elite tried to raise his plasma rifle with his good arm, but a quick burst of fire from the Chief's assault rifle put him down. Moving on, they passed a comm. terminal from a Covvie ship, its lights flickering but on. The Master Chief walked up to it, activating a message in the Sangheili native tongue.

"This communication's being broadcast to all Covenant in the area" Cortana said. "Let me put it through translation: '…Non-believers walk the sacred ground. Purge the heretics, so that they do not foul the air of Paradise. The time has come to enter the Great Light. The Promethean awakening is nigh...our reward is at hand'."

"It sounds like the Covenant were here looking for something" the Spartan remarked.

"It's the Covenant. Aren't they _always_ looking for something?"

"Prometheans…" Shepard said. "Wasn't that the name of those Forerunner battle droids? Maybe there are some here?"

"Let's hope not" the Chief replied.

"I wasn't there with you guys," Teana said, "but I remember the footage. Those things looked like bad news…"

Eventually, they reached a crevice in the rocks, making their way through. As they did so, a faint transmission was heard – incomprehensibly garbled and fouled by static beyond any hope of recognition.

"I'm picking up a faint transmission on the high-band" Cortana said.

"Covenant?" Teana asked.

"I don't think so… The pattern's different. I'll try to triangulate its position."

Making their way through the crevice, the team soon came out the other side near the edge of a plateau… and were greeted by a beautiful, breathtaking view. Huge kilometers-tall spires floated off in the distance, slowly ascending and descending over massive circular bases; beautiful mountains towered further beyond those; a forest stretched out, and a majestic waterfall was visible; birds of unknown new species flew about; and looking up, through the clouds, they could see the 'ceiling' of this level of the Shield World, silver with shimmering blue lines.

Moving left, going down a slope, they found the wreckage of part of a Covenant Corvette. In a stroke of luck, amongst the debris was an intact Type-45 'Spectre' Infantry Support Vehicle; the Chief got it upright and checked that it was in good working order (it was), and everyone piled in, with the Master Chief taking the pilot's seat, Shepard manning the plasma turret, and Teana taking the right-side passenger mount. The Spectre drove down along the ledge, and then hung a left, entering a pathway made partially of debris. They drove on for the next minute or so, passing by and through more wreckage, making turns here & there, and soon entering a part of the path with less debris and more rocks and plants.

"Chief," Cortana spoke up, "I'm hearing that strange signal again. It's stronger this time."

"Do you think there's something to it?" the Spartan asked.

"I'm curious, more than anything. Its behavior is… odd."

Making one last turn, the vehicle entered a small valley, one that was occupied by a decent-sized force of Mdama's Covenant – Grunts and Jackals, with a few Elites. The Chief took the Spectre to the right, up a rock 'ramp' and out of the enemies' view, and Shepard & Teana dismounted, readying his N7 Valiant and her Device's particle-beam sniper mode. Teana made the first kill, a shot from Mirage Sniper burning a hole through a red-armored Elite's skull. Shepard fired next, killing the area's lone Jackal Sniper atop a floating platform. As the Covenant realized they were under attack, Shepard and Teana kept at it, picking off the few other Elites and then about two-thirds of the valley's total Jackal population.

They got back on the Spectre, Teana switching her Device to Rifle Mode, and the Master Chief drove it down into the valley. Shepard used the vehicle's plasma turret to begin cutting down Grunts and surviving Jackals, with Teana firing Mirage Rifle on full-auto to take out any that the Commander missed. Reaching the far end of the little valley, a barricade blocked the Spectre from advancing. Shepard used the turret to gun down an Elite guarding the exit path, and the trio hopped out and made their way. Traversing though the crevice, they encountered a pack of hostile Grunts; the Chief's and Teana's assault rifles made short work of them.

"If we're going to hijack a ship from these Covenant," Cortana said, "we're going to have to find where they're landing first."

"I don't suppose you have a plan for that?" the Chief asked.

"We could always ask nicely…"

"Asking's not my strong suit."

The group came out into a rocky area at the base of a Forerunner structure crawling with Covenant. A pack of Grunts and a Jackal led by an Elite came down through the rocks, firing at the trio. Shepard hit the Elite with an Overload, stripping its shields, as the Chief drew his BR85 rifle and took the Sangheili terrorist out with a quick 3-shot burst to the skull. Teana started picking off Grunts, while Shepard hit the Jackal with a Biotic Pull that hoisted it into the air for his SMG to take out. One Grunt came running at them with two active plasma grenades, but the Chief shot the suicide-bomber mid-stride, and the active grenades – thrown forward by momentum – were sent flying away by a well-timed Biotic Shockwave from Shepard.

Moving forward through the rocks, they almost ran right into another Grunt pack led by an Elite. The Master Chief and Teana focused fire to gun down the Elite, while Shepard tossed out a Singularity that snatched up the Grunts, followed by a light Warp to destabilize it, the resulting Biotic detonation tearing the little aliens apart. They went right, heading for a ramp leading up to the structure's lower level, and the Chief threw a frag grenade to take out the two Jackals and three Grunts in their way. They ascended the ramp, Shepard using a Biotic Slam to take out two Jackals waiting for them, and then moved up another ramp to the top of the structure. The Chief's battle rifle and Shepard's N7 Eagle made short work of the Jackals and Grunts up here. Teana suddenly scooped up a plasma grenade, primed and threw it, sticking it to a cloaked Elite with a sword; the resulting explosion that vaporized the Sangheili's upper torso somehow spared the weapon, which the Master Chief took for himself. Everyone grabbed a few more of the blue grenades from the Covenant corpses, and moved through the door up ahead.

"There's that phantom signal again…" Cortana said, playing the garbled transmission as the doors behind and ahead of them cycled.

"I heard something that time" Shepard remarked. "Sounded like a man's voice, almost."

The door opened, allowing the trio inside. The chamber within was designed in the Forerunners' usual artistic flair, and was partially built into the cliffside, with sunlight pouring in from above. As they walked up a raised platform straight ahead, a squadron of familiar droids emerged from below, registering as yellow on the team's motion trackers.

"Sentinels" Teana observed, keeping her weapon handy.

"I was wondering when they'd show up…" Cortana remarked.

As they moved further inside, multiple platforms and columns slowly emerged from the floor, adding to the chamber's aesthetics. The bodies of several Covenant soldiers lay about, bearing the burn marks from Sentinel laser weaponry. The Sentinels themselves took position on the far side of the room, hovering in place around something while 'looking' at the human trio. Approaching it, they found it to be a console. The Master Chief lead the group up to it, hitting the button, and it projected a blue holographic sphere divided into grids – a map of the Shield World.

"It's a localized site cartographer" Cortana said as she observed the data. "Hmm… 'In service of Forerunner Shield-World, designate 'Requiem'."

"Requiem…" the Chief repeated. "At least we know where we are now."

"Let's see if it can tell us what the Covenant are so interested in…"

Suddenly, the hologram flickered off, having changed for a split-second into a bright red Forerunner glyph just before vanishing.

"…Huh."

"What happened?" Shepard asked the AI.

"I don't know; it locked up. I'm detecting power fluctuations in several locations. I'll put them up for you."

Two NavPoints formed on the trio's HUDs, across from each other. The Chief headed for the one on the right, finding a floating hard-light activation terminal looking out at a small chamber with a hovering platform in the middle; a golden beam of light passed through the platform vertically, extending from the chamber's floor to the ceiling. The Chief hit the button, activating a light-bridge that led to the platform. They walked across the light bridge, and hit the button hovering in front of the beam. The beam pulsed, and all three of them heard low warning alarms in their ears as their shields were drained.

"What's it doing?" the Chief asked as the platform slowly lowered.

"It's all right" Cortana assured them. "This energy is actually a ferroelectric data field. Your shields are just cycling in response to the chamber's charge."

"Will this bring the Cartographer back online?" Teana asked as their shields recharged.

"Partially" Cortana replied as the platform stopped, extending a light bridge to an opening directly below the initial one. "This type of processing system usually works in parallel. We'll have to locate its twin."

The trio moved across the light bridge, through a short hallway back into the chamber. However, upon returning they were met with an unpleasant surprise: the Covenant had gotten in and were setting up shop. A trio of Covenant Grunts spotted and fired at the emerging trio, and Shepard took them down with three perfectly-placed pistol headshots. The group moved across the room, following another NavPoint, and as they toward the ramp that would take them up to the level that the NavPoint was on, a pair of Jackals and an Elite stood in their way. Shepard zapped the hostile Sangheili with an Overload, de-shielding it and allowing the Chief to gun the alien down, while Teana took out the Jackals with lethal-set Crossfire Shot bolts that curved around their shields to strike their heads and chests.

At the top of the ramp, another hostile Elite waited, but was quickly dealt with by the fire from three automatic weapons at close range at the same time. Moving on, the team found another small chamber containing the other beam of golden light and platform. Upon activating it, the beam pulsed again, draining their shields to zero and triggering the platform to slowly lower. The mysterious radio signal came in again, but this time it was clearer, to the point that a man's voice could be recognized.

"That's Captain Andrew del-Rio from the UNSC" Cortana said. "Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is UNSC AI Cortana to _Infinity_! Please respond!"

The static-filled transmission continued for a few more seconds, hardly any of Capt. del-Rio's words discernible.

"No response, but from the strength of that signal, the _Infinity _has to be close by!"

"What's it even doing way out here?" Shepard asked.

"From what I've heard," Cortana replied, "after the Reaper War ended, the ship was meant to head out and investigate coordinates gleamed from the UNSC's studies of Halo Installation 03. Those must've been Requiem's coordinates. The Cartographer should be back online now; we may be able to use it to track the ship's location."

Emerging back into the main chamber, they found another force of Covenant between them and the Cartographer. The Master Chief threw a frag grenade, killing three Grunts, while Teana switched her Device to Marksman-Rifle Mode and picked off a Jackal Sniper and two standards along the edge of the room. The trio moved up and forward, carving through several more Grunts and a couple Jackals, and encountered two more Elites guarding the Cartographer: a standard red-armored one and one in slightly fancy gold armor with green highlights – a Field Commander, one step below the gold-&-red-armored Zealots. Shepard hit the red-armored Elite with an Overload, draining its energy shields and allowing Teana to gun it down, but the higher-ranking Elite dodged the blast and the Chief's opening rounds. Shepard made a Biotic-boosted rush in, shoulder-checking the Elite and knocking it off balance, and then primed a plasma grenade and jammed it into the alien's mouth. He kicked the Elite away and raised a Biotic Barrrier as the grenade went off, vaporizing the Elite's head and part of its upper torso.

With the area clear, the Master Chief walked up to the Cartographer and inserted Cortana's chip. Her hologram appeared atop the pedestal, and she created an interface scaled to her size for the Cartographer. The spherical hologram appeared again, with a few bluish rings around it, and after a bit of work Cortana got it to unlock and respond. Unfortunately, the hologram showed multiple concentric oscillating red rings all over the hologram of the Shield World.

"The Cartographer keeps acting like the transmission is coming from everywhere on the planet at once" she said. "It doesn't want to triangulate _Infinity_'s signal." The hologram flashed red, and then there was only a single red point… in the center of the sphere. "Oh, wait. I got it."

"…That can't be right" the Master Chief said.

"We've already passed through _one_ layer of the planet's 'surface'. It's not crazy to think that someone else made it deeper inside than we did."

"You mean this planet's hollow?" Shepard asked.

"Lemme see if I can figure out a way for us to reach these coordinates that doesn't involve digging a really big hole…" She called up a map of the local area. "There's a terminus on the far side of the complex" she said as she turned to the group. "We can take a portal to the planet's core from there."

Suddenly, her head snapped back to the hologram, looking almost startled.

"What?" the Chief asked.

"I don't know… I 'felt' something…" She shook her head. "Let's get moving."

The Chief pulled Cortana's data-chip out of the console and back into his helmet. As the trio walked away, they did not notice as the hologram behind them briefly flashed to a bright red Forerunner glyph…

The team passed through two more doors, coming out on a higher level overlooking a bridge that ran down the length of a large, open-air cavern. The whole bridge was littered with Covenant soldiers and material, and there looked to be a few Banshees patrolling the air further ahead near the distant other side. As the trio rode a lift slowly down, Teana leaned over the edge with Mirage Marksman-Rifle and took out the four Grunts waiting down below. At the bottom, the Chief used his assault rifle to take out a pair of Jackals, and the trio started making their way down (or rather up, considering the current incline) the bridge.

A Phantom up ahead fired its side anti-infantry plasma turret at them, and they moved up using various Covenant barricades as cover. Once the Phantom left, they hurried forward, nearing the apex of this section of the bridge. An Elite and two Jackals were there waiting for them, but a grenade from the Chief killed the avian aliens and de-shielded & wounded the Elite, leaving it open to a killing shot from Shepard. Further on, they reached a point where the bridge split into two levels, the lower level exposed by a sizable gap between the upper portions. A Jackal Marksman was across the gap, but Teana took it out before it could fire. More Jackals and an Elite down below fired up at the trio, and Shepard tossed out a Biotic Shockwave Chain that sent them flying in various directions, a few of them over the edge. Shots from the Chief put down the survivors.

They crossed to the second portion of the bridge, Shepard using his SMG to cut down a small pack of Grunts. The two Banshees patrolling the area both took notice of the three humans, flying in and firing bursts from their forward plasma cannons that chipped at their shields and forced them into cover. Teana summoned her rifle-form Device's underslung grenade launcher, and fired two at the closest Banshee's right wing, blowing the thruster off. The aircraft banked sharply, the pilot struggling to keep it under control, and as it flew overhead the Master Chief threw a plasma grenade up that stuck to the Banshee's underside, the resulting detonation sending the slagged vehicle plummeting into the canyon below. The second Banshee tried to attack them from the side, but Shepard blocked the shots with a Biotic Barrier and then hit the craft with a heavy Incinerate blast, blasting and burning through its armor. As the Banshee wobbled in flight, beginning to trail smoke, Shepard hit the damaged portion with a Warp blast, and the now-uncontrollable craft slammed head-on into the cavern wall.

The trio moved down the second half of the bridge, the Chief and Shepard using BR85 and N7 Eagle rounds to take out a handful of Grunts while Teana focused Mirage Marksman-Rifle fire on a blue-armored Elite to bring it down. At the end of the pathway, an Elite Field-Commander guarded the exit door, firing a Type-50 'Concussion Rifle'. After forming a Barrier to block the shots, Shepard took out its shields with an Overload, and the Chief gunned the Elite down with his assault rifle. With the way clear, they passed through the door and started down a metal hallway, coming out into a small, enclosed valley with a large Forerunner complex. A massive spire was dead ahead, sporadically firing golden pulses up into the atmosphere.

"Guys," Cortana said, "the Covenant net's going _crazy_. They're ordering all units to converge on the tower."

"I guess we got their attention" Teana remarked.

Straight ahead was a quartet of Grunts, oblivious to the threat behind them. Shepard tossed out a Singularity that snatched the squat aliens up, allowing the Chief's assault rifle to take them out in record time. Soon, a Shade turret up ahead on a raised platform on the left began firing at them, while a Grunt-driven Ghost drove up and opened fire as well. Shepard pulled out his N7 Valiant and sniped the turret-gunner, while Teana threw a frag grenade that flipped the Ghost over, tossing the Grunt driver out to be taken down by a burst of AR fire from the Chief.

Further on, they passed beneath a long, narrow raised platform area, finding a group of Grunts and Jackals led by a blue-armored Elite. Shepard sent out his Combat Drone, zapping at the Jackals to knock them off-balance and leave them open to killing shots from Shepard's pistol. Teana focused fire on the Grunts, picking them off one by one, while seven 3-round bursts from the Chief's BR85 rifle brought the Elite down. Up the next slope, closer to the entrance to the structure, another pack of Grunts led by a red-armored Elite stood in their way. Teana threw a plasma grenade that stuck to the Elite and blew the alien apart, and the Grunts panicked and ran in every direction, enabling the trio to move on and enter the structure.

"We're about to have our hands full" Cortana announced. "The Elites just issued a general order; they're moving all ground teams to secure the tower entrance above us."

They moved to the back of the entrance hall and up the ramps to the next level directly above. A few Grunts were easily cut down, but then an Elite Zealot came charging in, brandishing a plasma sword. Focused fire from Mirage Assault-Rifle, the Chief's MA5D, and Shepard's N7 Hurricane SMG failed to completely drain the Elite's powerful shields before it got close, and Shepard had to duck and roll to avoid losing his head. A heavy punch from the Chief took the Zealot's weakened shields down and dented its back armor, and Teana jammed the muzzle of Mirage Rifle against the Elite's head and held down the trigger, 10 rounds tearing through its skull.

Heading out and right, they encountered another Elite-led Grunt pack. The Chief killed two Grunts, stole a plasma grenade from one, and tossed it at the blue-armored Elite, sticking it in the upper chest and killing the alien; Shepard and Teana gunned down the now-disorganized Grunts. They rounded the corner, and the ramp up ahead had three Jackals – one blue-shield, one gold-shield, and one marksman. However, they were all bunched up, so a 40mm grenade launched from Mirage Rifle took them all out at once.

Approaching the final ramps leading to the entrance level of the tower, they heard considerable weapons fire from up top. Two Elites were straight ahead, and Shepard picked them off with his Valiant rifle. Above, they could see a few Sentinels floating about, firing their beam weapons at something. A large, high-velocity blast of hot green energy soaring up at an angle, narrowly missing a Sentinel, told the human trio that a Hunter pair awaited them. Fortunately, there was a Covenant weapons crate nearby with two Type-33 'Fuel Rod Guns' and associated ammo; the Chief and Teana each grabbed one. Up top, they unloaded their weapons on the Hunters. The beasts, already distracted and wounded by the Sentinels' constant attacks, were quickly disposed of.

"While you three were busy," Cortana said, "I managed to clear up another transmission from _Infinity_."

The clip of Captain del-Rio's voice was still garbled, but this time there was a recognizable word at the end.

"It sounded like he said 'artifact'" the Master Chief said.

"I wonder if it's related to whatever the Covenant are after…" Cortana thought aloud as the trio entered the structure.

"Where's the terminus?"

"The map placed it at the top of the tower."

They passed through a hallway barren except for some wall decoration. At the far end was an elevator waiting for them. After a long, leisurely ascent, it arrived in a dark blue-lit chamber, with a long bridge leading to a control panel. Countless pillars were in the room on either side of the bridge, sticking up from the floor. They carefully moved to the end of the bridge, and the Chief stuck Cortana into the Terminus. The machinery around them sprang to life, metal emerging and forming into panels while the parts of the Terminus 'unfolded' and descended, and the room's pillars rose up.

"According to the Cathedral," Cortana said as she worked at a holographic control panel, "this Terminus is just one node of a larger transit grid that spans the entire… planet…"

"What is it?" Shepard asked.

"When I tried to access the outlet closest to _Infinity_'s transmissions, the system responded with this."

A hologram appeared of a circular symbol, a sphere with a downward 'spur', surrounded by a partial ring of sorts.

"And this means…?" Teana started.

"It's the Forerunner symbol for 'Reclaimer'."

"Humanity" the Chief said. "That's got to be _Infinity_. Can you get us to those coordinates?"

"Lemme try to open a portal…"

As Cortana got to work, the pillars in the room suddenly rose up. Teana, Shepard, and the Chief spun around, weapons ready, and in multiple flashes of light a large bipedal entity appeared standing atop each pillars.

"That's a _lot_ of Promethean Knights…" the Chief said warily.

"But their 'running lights' are blue," Shepard added, "not red like Eve's."

"I still don't think they're friendly…" Teana said as the Knights started hissing and growling at the humans.

"Cortana…?" the Chief asked.

Suddenly, a slipspace translocation portal appeared nearby, to Cortana's surprise.

"How did…?" she murmured. "Quick! Into the portal!"

Moving quickly, the Master Chief retrieved Cortana's data-chip and returned it to within his helmet, and he, Shepard, and Teana ran for and jumped through the portal, the blue-hued Promethean Knights snarling in their wake.

**-**_**CHAPTER END**_**-**

Next Time: The team heads for the heart of Requiem, and uncovers something quite unexpected.


	3. Forerunner

Sorry for the wait; I'm juggling multiple tasks, so I have to switch off on which one(s) I'm working on at any given time.

**SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS**

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES

**-**_**CHAPTER START**_**-**

**Realm H4-L0 –Forerunner Shield World Requiem – 'Outer Core' Level**

A swirling blue & black vortex formed, allowing three people to emerge from it mid-sprint. The Master Chief, Shepard, and Teana quickly came to a stop, as the portal snapped shut behind them. They looked around, finding themselves in a small Forerunner room.

"Why are Promethean Knights here?" Shepard wondered aloud. "And why were they blue, not red like the ones Eve controls?"

"It's possible Eve's Prometheans are red _because_ she's controlling them" Cortana suggested. "Maybe the blue is the 'normal' color, a stand-by mode when they're not actively being controlled by anyone. Anyway, come on; let's figure out where the transit system dumped us."

Passing through the door ahead of them, the trio found themselves on a platform looking out at the inside of an utterly gigantic hollow sphere – the 'core' level of Requiem. A distant purple sphere hovered in the center of an otherwise-empty expanse, with two energy beams anchoring it to the core's inner surface. At the far end of this platform was a console podium, with two currently-inactive slipspace portal generators at the end of branch platforms on either side. The trio walked up, and the Chief slipped Cortana's chip into the podium.

"Where's _Infinity_?" he asked, looking around, as Cortana's hologram appeared.

"This is Requiem's core, all right," Cortana replied, "but _Infinity_ is definitely not here." She called up a holo-console. "That satellite in the center is amplifying the ship's broadcasts like a relay."

"Maybe we can use it to respond" Shepard suggested.

"Perhaps… Those beams coming off it are creating the interference we've been experiencing. We'd have to take them out to contact _Infinity_."

"Can you get us there?" Teana asked.

"Opening a gate to the first beam pylon…" The portal generator to their left came online. "Chief, pull me and let's go."

The Master Chief withdrew Cortana's chip and slotted it back into his helmet, and he, Shepard, and Teana passed through the whirling blue & black vortex. They emerged into a long, high-ceilinged hallway.

"This is the first pylon?" the Chief asked.

"Negative" Cortana replied. "This is as close as I could get us. Hope you don't mind hoofin' it a little."

They moved forward, exiting into a small valley, with the pylon dominating the nearby skyline. As they advanced, they saw several quadrupedal constructs crawling high up along the rocks.

"Crawlers!" Shepard warned, readying his N7 Eagle.

The Promethean Crawlers did not stick around, quickly scurrying up and out of sight. The trio advanced, taking a right turn into a section of the valley with an inactive light-bridge up ahead. Suddenly, the Crawlers attacked, crawling or leaping down the walls surrounding them and opening fire with their built-in Boltshots. Shepard made the first kill, two shots from his pistol taking out a Crawler on the left. Teana and the Chief followed suit, her Mirage Battle-Rifle and his M6 pistol taking out more. The Crawler pack's alpha joined the fray, firing its Suppressor at the Chief, and Shepard took it out with a Biotic Slam attack. Soon the last Crawler was destroyed by a Spartan-strength kick from Teana.

The trio moved on, activating and crossing the light-bridge. As they moved left and started through the small valley, a Promethean Knight suddenly leapt down from above, landing with a ground-shaking thud and knocking all three of them back and down with a wide swing of its arm. It stalked toward them, its face-plates opening to reveal a screaming/roaring holographic skull, lit by blue and looking disturbingly human. Shepard hit it with a Biotic Throw that knocked it back, and it vanished in a phase-jump before the others could open fire on it.

"The Knights sure seem to like that 'pounce and roar' bit, huh?" Cortana remarked.

Continuing through the passage, they arrived at a cliff edge. A handful of Knights were seen standing on the opposite rocks across the chasm, phasing away.

"Similar phasing activity at the edge of our sensors" Cortana reported. "We're about to get busy!"

They entered another small valley. Multiple Promethean Knights phased in and stood atop the canyon, looking down. Another Knight phased in right in front of them and released a Watcher, while a small pack of Crawlers showed up as well. The ground-level group of Prometheans then opened fire, and the human trio dove behind the rocks for cover. Crawlers charged in around the rocks, and the Chief used his assault rifle to take a few out, while Shepard formed a Singularity that snatched more Crawlers up, letting Teana focus Mirage Assault-Rifle fire to rip them apart. Shepard then leaned out and hit the Watcher with an Overload, taking it out, and the Chief & Teana focused fire on the Knight, their shields withstanding its Lightrifle shots. A launched 40mm grenade from Mirage Rifle finished the Knight off, and it was blown back, disintegrating into orange particles. The observing Knights up above phased out, vanishing.

Shepard picked up the Knight's dropped Lightrifle, and the trio headed through a door on the far side of the valley, entering a hallway with a few Forerunner weapons-racks lining the walls. Shepard stocked up on Lightrifle ammo, while the Chief grabbed a Boltshot, attaching it to his right hip to accompany the M6 pistol on his left. Teana, meanwhile, grabbed a few Pulse Grenades. Passing through the pathway, they exited into a large cavern. Another Promethean Knight was dead ahead, and opened fire on them with its Suppressor. Focused fire from the Chief's battle-rifle and Shepard's new Lightrifle brought down its shields and damaged it, and just when it was about to phase out to safety, a shot from Mirage Marksman-Rifle tore through its head, 'killing' it.

Advancing, they encountered another Knight and a Crawler pack. The Master Chief threw a frag grenade that took out most of the Crawlers before they could scatter, with Shepard's SMG taking out the rest, while Teana switched her Device to Shotgun Mode and charged at the Knight, dodging or letting her shield take its Lightrifle shots and blasting it once she was up close; three shots did the trick. They soon reached a raised platform, and a heavily garbled transmission from Captain del-Rio was heard, indecipherable.

"The relay interference is increasing" Cortana said. "We must be getting close to the pylon."

Down below, on the other side of the raised structure, there was a Crawler pack accompanied by a Watcher and a Battlewagon-type Knight. Teana switched Cross Mirage to Sniper Mode, and quickly fired two shots at the shotgun-wielding Knight, taking it out of the equation. Shepard immediately destroyed the Watcher with a high-yield Overload before it could even think about restoring the fallen Knight, and the Chief threw a Pulse Grenade down that took out the Crawler Alpha and two of its fellows. The trio dropped down, using their automatic weapons to mop up the rest of the Crawler pack.

They made their way down and across the area, moving up a rock ramp and through a door at the other end of a short path. They moved through a long, winding artificial passageway, Shepard and Teana stopping by a weapons-rack to top up on Lightrifle ammo and Pulse Grenades. The next door led them up onto a cliff-side overlooking a massive wide-open area, dominated by a very large structure in the middle. At the top of the tower is a light-bridge leading into an even larger structure containing the energy pylon's base, but hardlight shields block the walkway leading up to the top.

"That's the target, but it looks like the entrance is shielded" Cortana said. "Let's figure out how to take those barriers down."

There was a Crawler on the left-hand side below, and they hadn't yet noticed the three humans overlooking them. Shepard's Lightrifle, the Chief's Battle-Rifle, and Teana's Mirage Battle Rifle were put to work, quickly picking the quadrupedal mechs off before they could organize a response. The trio slid down to the bottom, looking around.

"According to scans," Cortana said, "there are three power cores for the shields blocking our way."

"And there happen to be three of us on hand" Shepard replied. "How convenient."

The trio split up, each heading for one of the three power cores. Shepard headed for the closest one on the right, throwing out a Biotic Shockwave-Chain that sent a Crawler pack flying in all directions. After using his pistol and SMG to finish off the damaged droids, he entered the small structure containing the power core and hit it with a Warp, destroying it. Meanwhile, heading for core number two, the Master Chief used his MA5D assault rifle to gun down a small Crawler pack, and when one of them leapt at him he backhanded it into a nearby wall then finished it with a stomp to the head. A Knight and Watcher came at him next, and he focused BR fire on the Watcher while avoiding the Knight's shots, soon bringing the flyer down. He then used a plasma grenade he still had from fighting through Covenant forces earlier to stick and destroy the Knight.

Teana, heading for the last power core, switched her Device to double Longsword Mode. Moving with superhuman speed and grace, she used her twin orange energy blades to carve through a pack of Crawlers, slicing the pack alpha in half length-wise. A Watcher and two Knights stood guard at the core's structure up ahead; Teana sent out a wave of Crossfire Shot bolts at the Watcher, overwhelming its meager shields and destroying it. She next charged at the Knight pair, dodging their Suppressors' fire. She swung at one Knight, cutting through the shields and severing the war droid's legs, and then she killed it with a stab through the head. She rushed the other Knight next, pulling free a Pulse Grenade and ramming it into a gap in the machine's armor. She leapt back and away as the grenade went off, tearing the Knight apart. With that done, she waltzed into the small structure and sliced the power core in half.

With the barriers disabled, the trio met up at the base of the central structure. Two Knights and a Watcher emerged to bar their path; Shepard took the Watcher out with an Overload and pistol fire, and Teana switched her Device to Shotgun Mode and charged one Knight, two shots downing its shields and blowing its 'face' off, while the Master Chief used a frag grenade and AR fire to take out the other. As they moved up the structure's ramp and out onto the second level, a Knight Battlewagon came rushing at them, firing its Scattershot. Shepard stripped its shields with an Overload, and a few shots with his Lightrifle took it down. Teana grabbed the Scattershot and the few 'shells' for it the Knight had dropped upon death.

"Guys," Cortana spoke up, "look at this."

In addition to a static-filled audio transmission, she showed on their HUDs an image of a sphere with a small black opening in it, and a tiny figure of a human ship approaching the hole.

"That sphere is Requiem!" she said. "They're not inside at all; they're moving into orbit!"

Reaching the top, they hurried across the bridge of metal and hard-light, passing through a long hallway and stepping onto an elevator.

"_Thi*STATIC*ptain del-Rio, hailing the away team from Shuttle R-X-*STATIC*are approaching your last known location._"

"The shuttle!" Shepard said. "They've picked up the shuttle's recovery beacon!"

"And if they try to follow it…" Teana started.

"…They'll get caught in the gravity well!" Cortana finished. "I'll keep trying to warn them; you three just get that beam down!"

As the elevator arrived at the top, the trio stepped out onto a top level dominated by a rotating structure projecting the thick, bright beam of energy straight upward into the 'Inner Core' high above. Using his Spartan strength, the Master Chief pulled a metal cylinder out from inside the console at the projector's base, twisted it 90 degrees, and then slammed it back in. The beam emitter deactivated, its spin slowing down as it retracted into the floor.

"It's working!" Cortana said. "The signal from the relay is starting to clear up."

"_FLEETCOM Actual, we've detected UNSC transponders coming from somewhere __inside__ the planet._"

"They haven't hit the gravity well yet" the Chief said.

"There's still too much interference to warn them" Cortana replied as a portal appeared on the far side of the chamber. "We've got to disable that other beam before they're pulled in like we were."

Moving through the portal, the trio found themselves back at their 'starting point'. As they exited back onto the platform overlooking the core, however, a trio of Covenant _Resolution_-class light cruisers emerged from slipspace into the massive open space between the outer and inner core levels, making a beeline for the still-active beam pylon.

"I was wondering why the _Infinity_ hadn't encountered Mdama's forces yet…" Cortana remarked.

"What are they doing here?" Teana wondered.

"They're heading for the second pylon as well!" Cortana highlighted multiple Phantoms emerging from the light cruisers.

"That _can't_ be a coincidence" Shepard said.

Another slipspace portal opened, this time on the right. Passing through it, the trio was transported into a small cavern. The sounds of battle were audible up ahead.

"Sounds like the Prometheans don't want the Covenant here, either" Cortana said. "The battlenet's already lighting up with reports of resistance all around the pylon."

The trio moved forward, passing through and up the rocky path and then dropping down a hole, hearing the whirring of a Phantom's anti-grav engines as they did. They came out onto a small ledge overlooking a sizable valley, just in time to see two large Covenant drop pods be dispensed into the area by a light-cruiser overhead. The Covenant forces emerged from the pods and immediately engaged patrolling Promethean forces. The human trio hung back and watched, letting the battle play out. Eventually, the Prometheans retreated, having been reduced to one damaged Knight and a pair of Crawlers, leaving a red-armored Elite and three exhausted Grunts as the surviving victors. Before the Covenant could recover, a particle-beam shot from Mirage Sniper killed the Sangheili terrorist, while shots from Shepard's Lightrifle and the Chief's BR85 put the Grunts down.

Hopping down into the valley, the trio moved right, following the sound of weapons fire. Two Watchers, three Crawlers, and a Knight Battlewagon were exchanging fire with a pair of red-armored Elites and three Grunts, with one of the enemy Unggoy going down after taking a hard-light bolt to the skull. Shepard moved right, up onto the rocks, and took out one of the Watchers with an Overload, while Teana went left, flanking the Covenant. The closest Elite barely had time to register her approach and turn to face her before she fired her new Scattershot from a foot away; the conical blast of bright orange energy pellets blew a hole in the Elite's midsection, and the alien very rapidly disintegrated into orange particles spreading out from the hole – an effect of the Scattershot's anti-Flood design. Shepard used his pistol to pick off Crawlers and Grunts, while the Master Chief focused AR fire to bring the other Elite down, and Teana took out the Knight with a beam-rifle shot, and then scavenged its Scattershot ammo.

Moving across the valley, they started up a rock ramp leading up to the entrance to an adjacent valley. Halfway up the rocky path, they turned a corner just in time to see a blue-armored Elite get impaled through the chest by a Promethean Knight's arm blade. The construct tossed the corpse away and then hissed at the humans, drawing its Lightrifle. Shepard hit it with an Overload, near-totally draining its shields, and Teana ran at it while firing her Scattershot, three blasts putting the war-mech down. Up ahead, on a higher rock platform overlooking the path, a Watcher warped in a heavy beam turret, its destructive orange beam forcing the trio into cover. Teana used Mirage Sniper to take out the Watcher, while the turret was destroyed by three shots from Shepard's N7 Valiant.

As the trio entered the next valley, two Ghosts sped by them, boosting towards a pair of Knights. The Promethean constructs dodged the attempted ramming and clothes-lined the Elite pilots with their blades, snapping the saurians' necks. A plasma grenade from the Chief took out one Knight before it could react, while the other was shield-stripped by Shepard and then blasted by Teana's Scattershot. Shepard and the Master Chief commandeered the Ghosts, driving further into the valley, while Teana – lacking a vehicle – went in and acquired a ride by kicking a Grunt out of its Ghost and claiming the vehicle as her own. The trio used their hover-sleds' plasma cannons to methodically clear the valley of Covenant and Promethean forces. As they moved through a tunnel lit by glowing yellow minerals, another incomprehensibly garbled transmission from the _Infinity_ was heard.

"The relay's signal is breaking up again" Cortana said. "We're almost to the beam."

They reached a small area outside a door leading into a Forerunner tunnel, where a Crawler pack was engaged in battle with a group of Grunts and Jackals. The three Ghosts' weapons made short work of both factions' members, and they entered the blue-lit metal passageway. As they cruised through, another transmission was received, showing a diagram of _Infinity_ moving toward Requiem's open entrance portal.

"They've found the opening! We'd better get up to that relay, and fast!"

Reaching the large open area containing the structure that connected to the pylon, they found the area infested with Covenant. A Banshee was flying around overhead, and nearby an Elite was making a run for a parked Banshee; the Chief boosted, the Ghost's front end acting as a lethal battering ram that cut the Elite's run permanently short. The airborne Banshee noticed the activity, and the Ghosts had to slide around to dodge fuel-rod shots, returning fire as they did and doing noticeable damage. As the smoking aircraft tried to get some distance to start another pass, Shepard fired his N7 Valiant up at its engines, with two shots taking the damaged propulsion systems out and leaving the Banshee to plummet to the ground.

Again, there were three power cores supplying energy to a hard-light barrier preventing access to the central structure, and again the trio split up to tackle all of them at once. Teana went for the nearest core, using her Ghost's plasma cannons to cut down the Elite and Grunts guarding it, and then running in and shooting the core. The Master Chief went for the core on the left, which was a bit more heavily guarded; a Grunt driving another Ghost engaged him in a 'duel' of sorts, and the Chief proved the better combat pilot, burning holes through the Grunt's body and then doing the same to its pack-mates and Elite overseer before then heading in and destroying the core. Shepard headed for the final core, finding it guarded by a trio of Elites. He slid his Ghost to the side to dodge a thrown plasma grenade, and then hosed the thrower down with plasma fire. He lashed out with a Biotic Throw that hurled the remaining two Elites back into the wall behind them, stunning them and weakening their shields, leaving them easy prey for the Ghost's guns. The core followed suit.

With the barrier disabled, the trio met up at the entrance to the structure, dismounting their Ghosts and heading up the ramp to the second floor. Three Elites with Type-51 Carbines were there to 'meet' them, and Shepard sent out a Combat Drone to divide their fire and use its shocker to weaken their shields. When one of the Elites stomped on the drone to destroy it, it exploded, nearly blowing the alien's leg off and also de-shielding the other two. The Master Chief's assault rifle and Shepard's SMG finished the wounded Elites off. As they ascended the structure, hurried across the light-bridge, and boarded the elevator up, another transmission from del-Rio came through:

"_*STATIC*SC _Infinity_ to shuttle team. Reading faint IFF tags near the planetary core, do you read?_"

"The planet's core? They know we're here! _Infinity_, this is UNSC AI Cortana. Do not approach Forerunner planet! Repeat, do not approach-"

"Infinity _to UNSC assets! We read you, but you're breaking up! Helm, increase speed by point-seven. Get us in there._"

"Negative, _Infinity_! Do not enter the planet!"

"_If you can hear us, keep transmitting._"

The transmission cut off.

"No! Chief, you've got to get that beam down _now_!"

Arriving at the top, the Master Chief sprinted over to the beam emitter's control podium, reaching in and pulling out a heavy cylindrical portion, rotating it 90 degrees and then shoving it back in. The emitter shut down, the beam cutting off as it retracted into the floor.

"Cortana to _Infinity_, do you copy? …Come in, _Infinity_! …The interference is gone, but your suit's transmitter isn't strong enough."

A portal appeared at the far end, and the trio hurried through, being transmitted back to their starting point. Emerging onto the outer core platform, they saw that the energy field surrounding the satellite was gone.

"Once we're on the satellite," Cortana said, "there's bound to be a central control point."

"The Covenant are moving towards the relay, too" Teana pointed out how the light cruisers were moving away from the second pylon and in towards the 'Inner Core'.

"This doesn't make any sense! Why would they care about a broadcast relay?"

"We'll handle them" Shepard replied as a large portal appeared straight ahead. "You just find us that control node."

Hurrying through the portal, they were brought to the satellite. Ahead, the central chamber was dominated by a huge, ominous grey sphere, engraved with orange patterns. Up ahead, a Phantom dropped off a pack of Grunts and a Jackal Sniper. A grenade from the Chief took out half of the Grunts and knocked the Jackal back, and Teana fired Mirage Assault-Rifle at the avian alien, killing it before it could regain balance, while Shepard's pistol dealt with the Grunts.

"How soon 'til _Infinity_ hits the gravity well?" the Chief asked.

"A minute or two, max" Cortana replied. "The Covenant are making a push for something on the far side of the satellite."

"Is that huge thing the signal relay?" Shepard asked.

"Yes. Now we just have to hope we can use it to warn _Infinity_ before it's too late!"

Faced with two pathways around the sphere, they ended up going right. Passing through a door, they moved up a ramp and emerged into the next area just in time to see a damaged Spirit dropship crash into a force of Knights and Watchers guarding the next door, wiping them out before careening over the side to the left. Shepard pulled out his N7 Valiant and picked off the two Elites straight ahead as well as the lone orange-shield bearer of the three Jackals present. A third Elite opened fire from a raised section on the right, and the Chief & Teana focused BR-type fire to kill it. The remaining two Jackals formed up, barking orders to the Grunts, but then an Overload from Shepard disabled their shields, leaving them open to a burst of SMG fire. The Grunts scattered, quickly being picked off by the two Spartans.

Through the door, they rode a lift up a short distance and entered the next open area. A trio of Promethean Knights was engaged against two Elites and a group of Jackals & Grunts. A Phantom flew in, using its three heavy plasma guns to wipe out the Knights. Teana conjured a sizable wave of Crossfire Shot bolts, locking on and firing them at the dropship; shooting through the air, they impacted the three guns, blowing them off. The now-weaponless Phantom retreated, as the Covenant ground forces took notice of the humans and opened fire. Shepard used his Lightrifle to pick off the Grunts and Jackals, while the Master Chief tossed a plasma grenade at one of the Elites; the alien ducked to dodge it, but it bounced off the wall behind the Elite and landed back down right on its head, the blast vaporizing the alien's upper torso. Teana charged in at the two other Elites, dual-wielding Mirage Shotgun and her Scattershot and disposing of both aliens. The trio started up the ramp on the far side of this area, ascending towards the final section.

"Guys, you need to hear this!" Cortana said.

"_We're detecting a slight gravimetric disturbance near the planetary entrance. Suggest altering approach vector: 43K-750K-12K_."

"They're not diverting from the opening! Hurry!"

At the top, they found three red-armored Elites engaged with a quartet of Promethean Knights and an auto-turret. One Elite had a fuel-rod gun, firing a shot that destroyed one of the Knights. The Master Chief signaled to Shepard, who hit the FRG Elite with a Biotic Pull that yanked it towards them. A blast from Mirage Shotgun killed it, and the Chief set his assault rifle down and grabbed the fuel-rod gun. Using the heavy ordnance, he destroyed the auto-turret, killed both remaining Elites, and destroyed all but one of the Knights before running out of ammo. As the Spartan went back for his MA5D, Shepard de-shielded the Knight with an Overload, and Teana finished it off with a few Mirage Rifle shots to the head. The team moved up a last ramp and onto a walkway; at the far end of it, overlooking the huge central sphere, two small pillars imprinted with the Reclaimer symbol stood.

"Wait," Cortana said, "something's not right!"

"There's no time" the Chief replied.

"…The pillars! Touch the pillars!"

Running up to the pillars, the Master Chief placed his palms down on the Reclaimer symbols atop them.

"_Infinity_, this is Sierra-117; do you copy?"

In a strange happening, John's own words were distorted and amplified back at him. Before their eyes, the massive central sphere slowly rose, emanating an orange glow.

"…_Infinity_, do you read?"

Again his words were played back, heavily distorted. The sphere continued to rise, its black plating folding away to reveal a glowing orange core. Down below the humans, the Covenant and Promethean forces stopped fighting and looked upwards at the rising sphere.

"Chief…" Cortana said. "Chief, let go of the contacts!"

The Chief obliged, and he, Shepard, and Teana took a few steps back. The sphere looked to be visibly gathering power and preparing to release it, and the trio immediately turned and ran for cover. Just as they dove behind a small barrier, the sphere released a powerful orange energy wave, knocking Covenant and Prometheans off their feet all across the inner core.

Elsewhere, worlds and Realms away, as she stood with Reinforce looking out the large window at Cranagan, already being reconstructed and repaired in the wake of the Reaper War's end, Hayate Yagami was startled as her resurrected friend gasped as if in pain, one hand leaning against the glass and the other clutching the side of her head.

"Reinforce?" Hayate asked, worried. "What's wrong?"

"No…" the Lifeworker-raised human murmured, anxiety and fear evident in her hushed voice. "This can't be happening… After all this time…"

Back in the core of Requiem, the black plates parted from the bottom of the glowing orange sphere, and a small triangular capsule lowered itself out of the opening. The capsule opened up to reveal a kneeling humanoid figure, as the trio briefly looked out at him before ducking back behind the barrier. After a few seconds, the figure stood up to his full, imposing height of 3.5 meters and flexed his muscles. A customized Forerunner combat-skin assembled itself around him.

'_We left so many safeguards…' Reinforce whispered. 'This can't be right…'_

The figure turned to survey his surroundings, revealing a grotesque, bestial face, small lips and large fangs, deep-set faintly glowing red eyes looking out, four dull-red bulbous masses growing on the sides of his head, and a patch of dark brown fur growing from the top of his head.

"So fades the great harvest of my **b**etrayal…" he mused with a deep, slightly flanging voice.

He waved his hand, the lights of every Promethean turned from blue to orange. The Knights knelt before their lord, as did the Covenant present. The platform slowly floated down towards the barrier the trio was hiding behind, with the new figure looking down at them with disdain.

'_Reinforce… Please, what's wrong? You're scaring me!'_

"Even these beasts recognized what you were oblivious to, **h**umans" he spoke with a cold tone tinged with disgust. "Your nobility has blinded you, as **e**ver."

The metal barrier shielding the trio abruptly disintegrated. Immediately they stood and drew weapons, but the mysterious figure extended his hand toward them, and they were instantly bound by a powerful telekinetic constraint field. Helpless, they were lifted up to face the being.

"The Librarian left little to chance, didn't **s**he? Turning my own guardians, my own _world_, against **m**e… But what…_ hubris_… to believe she could protect her _pets_ from me forever. If you haven't mastered even these primitives, then Humanity has not attained the Mantle. Your ascendance may yet be prevented…"

"My liege…"

Without releasing his captives, the figure looked down at several new arrivals: Eve T'Lesh, clad in full armor, followed by a squad of red-lighted Promethean Knights. She knelt before him, and her servants followed.

"And who might you **b**e?"

"Eve…?" Shepard grunted out. "Why…?"

"I am Eve T'Lesh, a member of the Lucavi race, former servant of Megatronus Prime, Primus' fallen son. I wish to pledge myself and my Knights to your service, to aid you in your – _our_ – quest to exterminate the human race. I am yours to command."

Curious, the figure telepathically 'scanned' Eve's mind, seeing her memories and her conviction. After several seconds, he waved his free hand, and the red lights of Eve's armor and her Prometheans turned orange. She looked up at him and the humans, but after a few seconds she averted her gaze – partly out of respect, and partly because she couldn't bear looking at the expression of hurt and betrayal on Commander Shepard's face. The figure then telekinetically brought the three bound heroes closer, gazing at them with cold hatred.

'_H-He's free… After all this time, he's free!_'

"Time was your ally, **h**umans…"

'_What are you talking about, Reinforce? Who's free? What's going on?'_

"…but now it has abandoned **y**ou."

'_The gravest threat my people ever faced. My mother's former husband… and worst enemy. Shadow-of-Sundered-Star…'_

"The Forerunners… **have returned**…"

'_The Didact!'_

The Ur-Didact assembled his combat skin's helmet, resembling a glowing metal skull, as the humans struggled futilely in his 'grip.

"This tomb… is now **yours**…"

With that, he flicked his wrist, and the Master Chief, Shepard, and Teana were flung away with great force. Teana immediately formed a Stage-0 _Susanō_, grabbing the two men with a pair of skeletal arms and using the spectral summon's enchanted properties to protect them and herself from the ensuing impact with a wall. Landing on their feet far below, they watched as Eve leapt high and onto the floating platform, which then carried her and the Didact back up into the unsealed cryptum. Swirling energy surrounded the sphere, power building and glowing as the black plates shifted back into position.

"Slipspace rupture!" Cortana announced. "Everyone, _move_!"

The trio ran for their lives as the cryptum's energy glowed increasingly bright, and then 'exploded' with a blinding flash.

-_Break_-

"Chief, please! We've got to go!"

The Master Chief clawed his way out of darkness, returning to consciousness. He groaned as he got to his feet, Shepard and Teana doing the same nearby.

"We were deceived" Cortana said to them. "That was the First Didact, the Forerunner war criminal! He manipulated _Infinity_'s signal to trick us into releasing him!"

They looked up to see a swirling energy field forming above them. A Covenant light cruiser was sucked into the breach, alongside huge masses of debris.

"What's happening?" the elder Spartan asked.

"Moving the satellite into slipspace destabilized the core. The Didact's leaving! We've got to find a portal out of here before the whole network collapses!"

(MUSIC: _Halo 4 _OST Vol. 2 – "Escape")

A nearby Phantom was pulled into the field, smashing into another Phantom. Both crashed into the canyon walls, dislodging the Ghosts they'd been carrying; the vehicles landed about 100 meters ahead of the group. The trio ran forward, clambering up the rocks and getting aboard the Ghosts.

"Hang on" Cortana told them. "I'm going to channel energy from your shields to overdrive the Ghosts' boost engines!"

The trio's armor energy shields vanished as they floored their hover-crafts' boost engines, and the three Ghosts rocketed forward. They sped down the canyon at top speed, as huge chunks of rock abruptly shot upwards from the earth ahead of and around them. Another Phantom crashed into the canyon ahead, the blast knocking the Ghosts to the side but not stopping them.

Making a huge jump across a gap, aided by the weakening of gravity, the Ghosts sped onward through the canyon. They passed numerous Grunts running for their lives, swerving around to avoid being slowed down any by hitting them. As they advanced, the gravity well continued growing in strength, sucking chunks of rock upwards, and the canyon was rapidly disintegrating around them. After another large jump they sped into a cave even as it crumbled around them.

"Emergency broadcast from _Infinity_" Cortana reported.

"_FLEETCOM, this is _Infinity_. We are encountering an unidentifiable gravimetric disturbance and are being pulled _inside_ a planet of __Forerunner__ origin! Jettisoning complete log beacons at our last known!_"

"We need to get up there!" Shepard said.

They advanced through the imploding caves and chasms, zooming past thousand-ton rock formations that rose into the air or slid to the side in their path. Another group of fleeing Unggoy was ahead, when suddenly the ground dropped out from underneath them, leaving them to plummet to their deaths as the Ghosts soared overhead.

"The core's not going to last much longer!"

Zooming around another turn, they dodged rising spears of rock and jumped a gap. Then, up ahead, they saw their salvation: an active slipspace portal. Teana murmured a prayer as the three Ghosts sped towards it, making a leap and soaring past floating rocks and metal, flying like arrows right into and through the portal.

-_Break_-

Near a serene, rocky cliff overlooking a beautiful view of mountains and forest, a swirling blue & black portal suddenly formed. Out of it shot three speeding Covenant Ghosts, their momentum carrying them right toward the cliff edge.

"Oh, shit!"

"Damn!"

"_Whoa_, cowboy!"

The Master Chief quickly turned his Ghost sideways, vaulted atop it, and then kick-jumped off of it. Teana leapt off her Ghost and used a combination of backwards flight and digging the claws of two _Susanō_ arms into the rock, shredding the hard ground as she bled off momentum. Shepard leapt free of his craft and pulled a backwards Biotic Charge. The Master Chief, skidding along his boots, came to a stop mere inches from the cliff edge. The Ghosts tumbled over the edge, plummeting into the fog below and exploding as the damage caused by Cortana's overcharge finally caught up to them.

As the trio's shields came back online, they heard a rumble above, and saw the UNSC _Infinity _emerging from the clouds, electricity sparkling around its hull. The ship left the cloud layer, drawing closer to the group, descending.

"_Mayday! Mayday! This is the captain of the UNSC __Infinity__. Unknown entity has seized control of our ship! We're without power, and on a collision course with an unidentified Forerunner planet!_"

The human dreadnought soared over their heads, shaking the ground below it, descending into the jungles ahead.

"Track its descent" the Master Chief ordered.

"Marking…" Cortana replied. "Impact predicted 77.8 kilometers due north."

As the trio watched the _Infinity_ descend, the air began to waver and distort behind them as the Didact's cryptum rose from below the cliff edge. They spun around, readying weapons, looking up at the 86-meter-wide, black & orange sphere. The cryptum sent out a scanning pulse, and then zoomed away toward the _Infinity_'s direction at supersonic speed.

"You _know_ where he's heading…" Cortana remarked.

The Master Chief nodded as he, Commander Shepard, and Teana started walking. "Same place we are."

**-**_**CHAPTER END**_**-**

Next Time: The hero trio move to assist the people of the _Infinity_.


	4. Infinity

**SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS**

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES

**-**_**CHAPTER START**_**-**

**Realm H4-L0 –Forerunner Shield World Requiem**

The Master Chief, Commander Shepard, and Teana continued their trek through the jungle. They could hear weapons fire ahead, and through gaps in the trees the _Infinity_ was increasingly visible.

"Stay low" Cortana said suddenly. "Recon sortie heading this way."

The trio ducked under trees as several Phantoms and Banshees sped by overhead. With just a few more steps, they reached a spot overlooking a [lower-elevation area – ravine? Gorge? It's full of trees and life, but those words bring 'dead rocky area' to mind…], in which the _Infinity_ was grounded. The Didact's cryptum hovered nearby, sending scanning pulses through the ship, while Covenant aircraft fired at it, the extra-thick armor taking almost no damage from the dropships' & fighters' puny weapons.

"The ship looks pretty intact" Cortana remarked.

"Something tells me that's only because the Didact wanted it that way" the Master Chief replied.

"_This is Lasky to UNSC _Infinity" a man's voice came over the comm. "_We're up to our necks in bad guys down here! Does anyone read?_"

"This is Commander Shepard; I've got Sierra-117 and Gamma-1 with me. We're on station, ready to assist."

"_Negative copy_" the return transmission became increasingly static-filled. "_Sound*STATIC*aid 'Sierra' and 'Gamma', come aga*STATIC*_"

"The signal's bouncing in & out" Cortana said. "I can't clean it up."

"Light up their friend-or-foe tags" the Chief ordered. "We're gonna need something to zero in on."

"I'm seeing numerous IFF tags below the tree line. Painting the closest one on your HUDs."

The WayPoints appeared on the heads-up displays of the trio, and they turned around and started heading deeper into the jungle.

"Lasky…" the Master Chief murmured. "I remember him."

"You know the _Infinity_'s XO?" Teana asked.

The Spartan nodded. "Cobrulo Academy, 2526. He was just a trainee, but he helped me take down a Hunter."

"And now he's second-in-command of a dreadnought" Shepard said. "Sounds like he's moved up in the world."

"Infinity _to Commander Lasky_" Captain del-Rio's static-fouled voice was heard. "_We've lost contact with your Pelicans. Report in!_"

"They must not have received his distress call" Teana remarked.

The trio moved cautiously through the trees and rocks, hearing the calls of wildlife all around them. Soon, they reached a small clearing. Three Promethean Knights were standing over the corpses of three marines, and they phased out as soon as they saw the Chief's group.

"Lasky?" the Spartan asked, looking at the bodies.

"One of them's an officer" Cortana replied. "Check his tag."

Shepard walked over to the one wearing officer's insignia, and checked the man's dog-tags. "Jiminez, Paolo J" he said. "So Lasky's still out here somewhere."

The Chief discarded his nearly-empty BR85 rifle and picked up an M395 Designated Marksman Rifle and ammo from a dead marine, and all three of them scavenged a few frag grenades. They continued weaving their way through the jungle, until they saw the orange lights of a Crawler pack up ahead. The Chief used his DMR to pick off the pack's Alpha, and the rest of the quadrupedal droids began to charge, firing their blasters. Shepard formed a Singularity that 'grabbed' all but one of the Crawlers, and Teana unloaded on the trapped ones with Mirage Assault-Rifle, destroying them all, while the Chief put down the lone survivor.

Moving forward and hanging a right, they were attacked by a second Crawler pack. The Chief threw a frag grenade that destroyed all but three of them, and Shepard's pistol took them out. There was also a Knight further downrange, but two shots from Mirage Sniper took care of it. Continuing through the jungle, they encountered the beginnings of fog that reduced their visibility. Fortunately, the glowing orange portions that Prometheans had made the Watcher and Crawlers they encountered easy to aim at and destroy. They soon reached a small hilltop, arriving to see a Promethean Knight holding a UNSC marine up by the throat, its hard-light blade impaled through the man's chest. Before the trio could do anything, the marine pulled out and triggered a frag grenade, and rammed it into the Knight's face. The resulting blast killed them both.

Their WayPoints led them down the hill; the fog was very thick in this spot, but their helmets all had the latest-model VISR systems, highlighting the surrounding neutral structures & objects in yellow and the Prometheans here in red; Teana and the Chief used assault-rifle fire to clear out the Crawlers, while Shepard hit the Knight to the right with an Overload and a few Lightrifle shots, scavenging ammo for the weapon from the Knight's dissolving body. They made their way up out of the 'fog pit', passing along huge tree roots.

"We've got another IFF on the far side of this thicket" Cortana reported.

Going up and around, they found a dead marine beneath an overhanging boulder. The Chief tapped into his armor's onboard systems, playing recorded dialogue:

"_We should get eyes out there,_" Lasky's voice said, "_looking for the others._"

"_Peters, you heard Commander Lasky_" a woman's voice added.

"_CFB, ma'am_" a different man replied. "_Bulldogs, on me! We're going for a walk._"

"Lasky's been through here," Cortana said, "recently by the timestamp."

Moving on ahead, a quartet of Crawler Alphas tried to ambush the trio as they passed a small pond. Teana scrapped one with a Scattershot blast and another with two Crossfire shot bolts to the head, while the Chief's and Shepard's pistols put the other two down. Approaching the next right turn, they heard the unique sound of a Watcher being deployed by a Knight. Sure enough, when the Chief poked his head around the corner, he saw not just the two Prometheans in question – with the Knight being a Lancer-type – but a hovering light auto-turret and four Crawlers as well. After several seconds of planning, Shepard rolled out into view and hit the Watcher with an Overload while at the same time blasting the little turret with a Warp, destroying both. Teana was next, firing two 40mm grenades to wipe out the Crawlers. Then, as the Knight returned fire, the Master Chief focused DMR fire on it, six shots taking out its shields and then its face, destroying it.

"I've got another IFF tag," Cortana said as the trio moved forward, "but as far as I can tell we're moving into a chokepoint. This may end up as a dead end."

In the next area, they made their way up massive roots as thick as the average Earth tree's trunk, using them as platforms and bridges as they ascended towards a Forerunner-made door on a higher level. A few Crawlers got in their way, but were easily disposed of. As they reached the door, there was a stack of UNSC crates and weaponry; the Chief topped up on DMR ammo. The trio's motion trackers registered friendlies on the other side of the door just as it opened, and three Spartan-IVs – Commander Sarah Palmer and two subordinates – came out, weapons drawn as they surveyed the area behind the Chief's group.

"I'm afraid we'll have to give you three an IOU on that welcoming party."

A man in UNSC naval officer's uniform walked up to them from within; he bore the insignia of a Naval Commander, and his black hair was graying a little despite his not even being 50 years old yet.

"Tom Lasky," he introduced himself as he shook their hands one by one, "First Officer of the _Infinity_. Didn't expect to run into you folks here."

"Seal her up!" Palmer ordered her men, who got to work on closing the door.

"Commander!" a marine further inside shouted. "Radio's hot!"

The group hurried over to the radio that the marine was kneeling by.

"_Respond to comm.…_" Captain del-Rio's voice was heard with some static but still discernible. "_On what frequency… __What frequency__, damnit?_"

"_Infinity_, this is Commander Lasky. Pelican recon teams are down – repeat, all birds are down! We've got numerous casualties and require immediate assistance, over!"

"_Finally… Did you get the coordinates to that gravity well?_"

"Affirmative sir, but we're going to need a bus out of here-"

"_Make it happen!_"

The transmission cut off.

"You were sent on a scouting run in the middle of an attack on the ship…" Cortana said through the Chief's speakers.

Lasky sighed. "The Captain thought _Infinity_ could provide us cover and hold off the attack at the same time."

"Sir…" Palmer approached with a frown. "We'll never get the wounded back to the ship on foot."

Lasky stood up, facing the hero trio.

"I don't know if it's too soon to ask you three a favor," he said, "but… we're going to run out of breathing room here real quick. I don't suppose you're any good at clearing LZs?"

"On occasion" the Master Chief replied dryly. "We'll send out an all-clear once the area's secured."

"A topographical scan of the area shows a break in the foliage north from here" Cortana said. "Should be big enough to bring in a dropship for evac."

The Chief, Shepard, & Teana moved toward the exit, accompanied by four marines. In the wooded area just outside, a Crawler pack and a Knight with a Lightrifle were waiting for them. As the Chief helped the marines take out the Crawlers, Shepard stripped the Knight's shields with an Overload, and Teana finished it with a few Mirage Marksman-Rifle shots to the head. The squad moved up, and another Knight emerged from the left bend ahead, accompanied by a Watcher. Shepard took out the little flyer, while concentrated fire from everyone else quickly wore down the Knight's shields and destroyed it.

They moved on, heading up a natural 'ramp', and when they rounded the bend at the top they were ambushed by a Crawler pack and a Knight. Shepard threw out a Singularity that snatched up the Crawlers and left the Knight unsteady on its feet, and two grenades from the marines finished the whole lot off. Up ahead and to the right, they found a fireteam of marines pinned down by Crawlers and a Watcher. The Chief's DMR made short work of the flyer, and focused fire from Shepard's pistol, Teana's burst-fire-mode Mirage Rifle, and the marines' assault rifle shots took care of the Crawlers.

They were now at the base of a hill; at the top was a Forerunner door, and between it and them was a sizable force of Prometheans – three Knights, at least two Watchers, and a dozen Crawlers. One of the Knights started taking shots at the marines from the left side of the hilltop, killing one; in response, Shepard Biotic-Charged up at the Knight, knocking it back and leaving it open to a barrage of SMG fire that cut it down. He saw the Watchers flying down towards a pair of boulders on either side of the hilltop, and he used his Overload to destroy one, but the Overload module couldn't recharge fast enough for him to stop the other Watcher from warping in a heavy beam-turret.

Focused fire from the marines took down a Knight, and the Chief shot down the remaining Watcher. As the heavy turret began trying to burn the humans, Teana responded by firing a _ki_ blast, obliterating the turret. The final Knight was waiting at the top of the hill, preparing to load and launch a pulse-grenade at the humans, when two shots from Shepard's N7 Valiant took it out. Hurrying up to the locked doors, the Master Chief pulled Cortana's chip out and slotted her into a nearby interface.

"These doors open into a cave system large enough for an LZ" the AI reported. "Hold the Prometheans off long enough for me to open the doors!"

The hero trio and the marines hunkered down, grabbing weapons & ammo and manning the three mounted machinegun turrets. Soon, Crawlers and Knights emerged at the bottom of the hill and started making their way up, firing at the humans. The group returned fire, .50-caliber rounds and a few grenades joining small-arms fire, scrapping the Crawlers and pushing the Knights back. A few Watchers joined the fray, only for Shepard and Teana to blow them out of the sky. The Master Chief manned one of the turrets, taking out a group of Crawlers and then focusing fire on a Lancer-type Knight. Upon losing its shields, the Knight Lancer warped forward in a zigzag pattern at great speed, appearing right in front of him ready to impale the Spartan… and then was blasted point-blank by the shotgun-wielding marine standing right next to the Chief, taking it out.

Finally, just as the last Knight and two Crawlers fell, Cortana got the doors open. Retrieving his AI partner, the Master Chief also grabbed an ARC-920 railgun from a nearby crate, and he, Shepard, & Teana headed into the cave as the marines stayed behind to secure the area. After nearly a minute of advancing through the cave, they saw an opening that was blocked by a Promethean Knight. However, its back was turned to them as it gesticulated and 'spoke'. Upon closer inspection, there were Grunts just outside, and the trio soon realized it was ordering them around.

The Master Chief cut the Knight's role short with a railgun shot to the back, the supersonic explosive round blowing a sizable hole that the Knight disintegrated out from. The Grunts panicked, leaving them easy prey to the Chief's & Teana's assault rifles, and the lone Jackal had its shield Overloaded and its head pistol-shot by Shepard. Further in, out in the open, there were two more Knights and a Watcher, along with a trio of Jackals. The Chief took out the Watcher with a few DMR shots, and then Shepard & Teana picked off the Knights with his Valiant and her Mirage Sniper.

A Phantom flew in, firing its chin-mounted gun and side-mounted manned turrets at the humans while it dropped off another squad of Grunts and Jackals, and a trio of Promethean Knights warped in. Teana picked up a dropped plasma pistol, and fired an overcharged shot at one of the Knights, stripping its shields and letting the Chief take it out with a headshot. Shepard threw out a Shockwave-Chain that sent Grunts flying and staggered another Knight, and a frag grenade at the Knight's feet destroyed it. The Master Chief managed to take out the Lancer-type Knight's shields, and when it charged he dove backward to avoid it, and a blast from Teana's Scattershot took the Knight down. Teana then switched her device to dual Pistol Mode, and ran in & finished off the remaining Grunts & Jackals.

"Cortana to Lasky: LZ is secure."

"_Roger that, Cortana. I'll get you the coordinates for the-"_

"_Mayday, mayday!_" Captain del-Rio's voice cut in over general comms. "_Code Red! Hostile elements attempting to gain entrance to the _Infinity _bridge! All units, return to _Infinity_ immediately!_"

"_Chief, Shepard,_" Lasky said as a Pelican entered the clearing, "_I'm redirecting the SPARTAN-IVs to rally point Alpha-Sierra-Foxtrot! Until we catch up, you have tactical command of the forward assault force. Rendezvous with those men and take back that ship!_"

"Got it" Shepard replied.

-_Break_-

(MUSIC: _Halo 4 _OST Vol. 2 – "Push Through")

The Pelican dropped the Master Chief, Shepard, and Teana off in an open canyon, choked with dust and debris from the crashed dreadnought. Nearby, a squad of Spartan-IVs was engaged with the enemy – a sizable number of Grunts and Jackals, with a Phantom hovering nearby. The Chief ran for a nearby M808 Scorpion tank, hopping into the driver's compartment, with Teana boarding the machinegun turret. Shepard took a seat on the forward-right corner of the vehicle, with three S-IVs taking the other spots.

"Let's see if all that training you and the other S-IIs gave the IVs has paid off…" Cortana said inside the Chief's helmet.

A shell from the tank's cannon obliterated one hostile Elite, while the other's shield was stripped by Shepard's Overload, leaving it vulnerable to two S-IVs' concentrated fire. The Scorpion started moving, blasting a Ghost that came in from up ahead. Soon, a Warthog manned by three Spartan-IVs rolled up beside the tank, moving with it.

"_Shepard, 117, it's Lasky. We're touching down just north of your position. Proceed to Starboard Hanger 2-19, and we'll link up with you there._"

Rolling through the canyon, the Scorpion blasted a Covenant anti-grav watchtower, while the Warthog's chaingun took out the stragglers that had been around the tower's base. Continuing on, a Grunt atop another watchtower fired a fuel-rod shot at the tank, and the Chief threw the tank forward and to the left to dodge the glowing green anti-armor projectile. A return shot from the tank's gun blew the watchtower to bits, while the Warthog rolled ahead and focused fire to take down another one. A Ghost sped in from up ahead, but was scrapped by a shot from the tank.

The next open area had two watchtowers, a trio of Ghosts, and a Wraith. The Chief first used the tank's big gun to take out the watchtowers, while Teana used the MG to take out an Elite trying to flank the tank, the Warthog focused on the Ghosts, destroying one, and Shepard hit another passing Ghost with a Biotic Throw that overturned it, leaving its pilot open to fire from the S-IVs. The tank's cannon took out the last Ghost, and then started blasting the Wraith while moving around to dodge the plasma mortars it fired. Three shots did the trick, and the two vehicles moved on past the smoldering wreck of the Wraith.

They reached a part where the path briefly split into two, with a watchtower at the fork and a Wraith straight ahead at the end of the right path, where the two paths recombined. The hover-tank had its back to them, focusing on any hostiles potentially coming from the _Infinity_; the Chief made the Wraith's pilot pay for that lack of situational awareness with an explosive shell to the tank's weak-armored aft end, taking out the power core in a massive blast that gutted the dark-blue vehicle. Shepard formed a Singularity directly above the floating platform of the nearby watchtower, snatching up the two FRG-wielding Grunts before they could fire, leaving them vulnerable to the Spartan-IVs' shots. Another watchtower up ahead was blasted by the Scorpion's cannon.

Moving on, there was about a minute of peace as they passed through the canyon unmolested. Then, they finally arrived at the area at the base of Bay 2-19; here, a Wraith and three Ghosts were exchanging fire with a certain trio of Spartan 2.5's-turned-4's. Alisa-B296 fired her sniper rifle, taking out the Elite driving one of the Ghosts. When the Chief's Scorpion blasted the Wraith from the side, briefly stunning the pilot, Zeke-B147 took advantage of the opening by firing two rockets at the wounded hover-tank, destroying it. A Ghost tried to move in close against Crimson Team, but Bellerophon-B047 threw a plasma grenade that stuck to the vehicle, blowing it up before the driver could get out.

As the Warthog took out the last Ghost, the Scorpion rolled into the tunnel that Fireteam Crimson had been guarding, driving down a slope and onto the huge cargo elevator waiting for them. The lift slowly brought the tank up into Hangar 2-19; a handful of marines were in cover, exchanging fire with a force of Grunts and Jackals led by a Hunter pair. A shell from the tank hit one of the Hunters right in the 'face', blowing the gestalt being to bits along with a few Jackals that were standing too close. A second shell went off at the other Hunter's feet, having much the same result against it and some nearby Grunts. The tank rolled forward, Teana using the machinegun turret to finish off the dazed and panicking Grunt and Jackal survivors.

"_Master Chief, Commander Shepard, this is Captain del-Rio. Lasky just radioed; you picked a helluva time to join up with us!_"

"Sir, what's our status?" the Chief asked.

"_That satellite took down the ship's defenses and is extracting data from the ship's mainframes as we speak._"

"Can we break the connection?" Shepard asked.

"_Main point of contact's on the ship's upper hull; the fastest route is through the maintenance causeway. There's a Mantis docked inside the door. Take it. You'll need the extra firepower._"

Heading through the door on the right, the trio entered a sort of hangar with a raised platform in the middle, and heavy doors on the far side. The Chief placed his palm on the nearby terminal, and the circular plate on the raised platform split in two. From below, a Mark-IX 'Mantis' combat walker emerged.

(MUSIC: _Halo 4 _OST Vol. 2 – "Mantis")

The Master Chief boarded the Mantis, which stood tall as he started it up. The door straight ahead was jammed shut, but Teana briefly formed two Stage-0 _Susanō _arms and wrenched it open, clearing the path. She and Commander Shepard then followed the Chief's Mantis as it moved into the causeway. As soon as the Grunts saw the huge walker approaching, they panicked and ran for their lives, while a pair of Promethean Knights emerged and opened fire on the mech. The Mantis' shields shrugged off the hard-light shots, and its heavy machinegun ripped through the two Knights' shields and bodies in a matter of seconds. A heavy beam turret up ahead started charging to fire, but two shots from Shepard's N7 Valiant put a stop to that.

Reaching a right turn, they were met by Knights and Elites with Jackal and Watcher support. A few missiles from the Mantis' launcher took out the Knights and all but one Elite, while an Overload from Shepard destroyed the lone Watcher, and a frag grenade from Teana blew away the Jackals. Soon the narrow part of the passageway ended, opening out into a high and wide multi-leveled area with a ramp/road going up the middle. Four Knights, a dozen Grunts, a Watcher, and three beam turrets populated the area. The Chief first fired a missile at each turret, while Shepard used Overload to strip a Knight's shields and Teana then sniped it. The Mantis turned its guns on the other Knights, while Teana blew the Watcher out of the air. Afterwards, the panicking Grunts were mowed down as they tried to flee.

Hanging a left at the top of the slope, they were attacked by two Knights and a small pack of Jackals. A rocket from the Mantis took out the tightly-packed Jackals, and the heavy machinegun dealt with the Knights. They advanced down the narrow, straight pathway, fending off ambushes from behind the large storage crates that lined the sides of the path. There was a close call with an Elite carrying a fuel-rod gun toward the end, but Shepard hit the alien with Stasis just before the gun could be fired, letting the Mantis stomp the Elite into the ground. Reaching the end of the passageway, they arrived at a large cargo elevator; after using a pair of rockets to blow away the Grunts inside, they boarded the lift.

"_Chief, it's Lasky! Come in!_"

"Go, Commander."

"_We've identified several Covenant jamming devices on the outer hull._"

"That might be how they're blocking the _Infinity_'s defenses" Cortana said.

"_Exactly what we were thinking. Neutralize them, so we can get our guns back online and show that satellite we're more than just a big paperweight._"

As the lift stopped, the Mantis and its two on-foot escorts hurried down a straight corridor, exiting through a door and onto the upper hull. The Didact's cryptum was hovering directly in front of the _Infinity_, scanning the ship's systems. Eight Covenant light cruisers were holding position over the ship, sending swarms of dropships and Banshees against the _Infinity_'s own aircraft. Cortana marked three jammers on the hull, mounted near some anti-air defenses, keeping them offline. As the Master Chief's Mantis began firing its machinegun at ground forces, Shepard spotted a second Mantis off in the corner. Biotic-Charging over to it, he climbed aboard and booted it up, joining the Chief in killing Jackals & Knights, and then firing three rockets at the left-side jammer, destroying it. The left-side AA defenses came online, beginning to fire at approaching Phantoms.

Not to be left out, Teana used Mirage Sniper to pick off a few Elites and Knights, and then rushed in to the right. The Covenant who fired at her were surprised to see their shots either deflected by her two orange energy blades or neutralized by what looked like a spectral ribcage surrounding her. As she came close, she advanced her _Susanō _to Stage 1, and a wide swing of its blade cut through several Covenant forces and sent others flying. As her spectral summon protected her, she charged and fired a 'Divine Burst' at the right-side jammer, blowing a huge hole through it. The right-side anti-air defenses came back online. Meanwhile, the Chief's Mantis made it around the central Onager-class MAC turret. A burst of MG fire took out the Elites guarding the jammer, and a couple rockets destroyed the jammer itself. Now, all the AA defenses were back online, firing at the Phantoms and Banshees polluting the sky.

"_Del-Rio to Master Chief_" the ship's Captain said as the cryptum sent out another scanning pulse. "_The rate that thing is searching our systems just doubled; I think it knows what you're up to._"

The _Infinity_'s missile batteries came back online, adding their heavy firepower to the cause. A wave of Phantoms came in from the Covenant cruisers; most were shot down, but three managed to drop off a force of enemies, who began firing at the trio from all sides. The Chief and Shepard's Mantises formed up, covering each other as they laid waste to the attacking forces. Teana kept her Stage-1 _Susanō _active, the powerful construct shrugging off the plasma bolts that hit it like they weren't even there, using its huge fists to smash and fling opposition, and even using its sword to slice through a Banshee that flew too close.

More Phantoms and Banshees flew in, the former dropping off squads of Elites and a few FRG-wielding Grunts. As the two Mantises and the spectral warrior fended them off, the _Infinity_'s guns managed to cripple two of the Covenant light cruisers, flames spewing through rents in their hulls as they lost altitude. Rockets and anti-air gunfire from the auto-defenses pounded at the approaching aircraft, shooting several out of the air, as the three 'power units' dealt with Covenant units on the 'ground'.

"_Captain del-Rio to Sierra-117. The MAC network's reading operational, but our EM relays are malfunctioning. You'll have to initiate the link manually._"

The Master Chief walked his Mantis over to the MAC network's control console and got out, keying in the start-up command. After a few seconds, the _Onager_-class MAC nearby came to life, power audibly charging as it rose up and pointed at the Didact's cryptum.

"_Forward MAC batteries, get that damn orb away from my ship! All cannons, fire at will!_"

All of the _Infinity_'s broadside defenses opened fire on the cryptum, while a formation of F41 Broadswords charged at the sphere, guns and missiles blazing. After taking several shots, the Didact's cryptum broke off, retreating off into the jungle.

"_Del-Rio to _Infinity_, all hands: we are Condition Yellow. Stand down. Section heads, report in; begin damage assessment._"

**-**_**Break**_**-**

The 5.7-kilometer dreadnought lifted off, bearing a few battle scars but otherwise intact, with squadrons of Pelicans and Broadswords flying in formation around it.

"What I wanna know, people," Captain del-Rio said to the various figures gathered in the _Infinity_'s bridge, "is where the hell did those things come from?"

"They're called Prometheans" Cortana replied, calling up a hologram of a Knight. "Essentially, they're Forerunner battle droids - dedicated soldier units, compared to the Sentinels' security role."

"We've never seen this type of offensive reaction from any of the other installations."

"Other installations?" Shepard asked.

"Before – and now after – the Reaper War," Commander Lasky replied, "_Infinity_'s mission has been to locate the remaining Halo rings, and establish permanent bases to study them for decommissioning. We've got locations up & running around Halo Installations 05 and 03, but… lately, they've run into some setbacks."

"A science team got zapped excavating a Forerunner artifact on Zero-Three" del-Rio clarified. "This sensor data is all that was left."

He brought up a new hologram: dozens of Forerunner glyphs arranged in a circular pattern, converging around the Ur-Didact's symbol.

"Interesting…" Cortana said. "These symbols are a derivation of the Forerunner glyph system."

"And our geeks managed to pull some coordinates. Three guesses where they led…"

"Sir," Comm. Palmer said to del-Rio as she approached, handing him a datapad, "Gypsy Company is prepped and ready to roll on your orders."

"Thank you, Palmer. Mr. Lasky, you take point; I want boots on the ground in 60."

"Captain?" Shepard asked, he and the Chief looking caught off-guard by the Captain's orders.

"This is a first-contact scenario, you three. Priority is to free _Infinity_ from Requiem's gravity well and file a threat assessment back at FLEETCOM."

"You mean we're _leaving_?" Teana spoke up. "With a Forerunner war criminal still here, and still in command of a shitload of military hardware and forces?"

"Sir," the Master Chief said, "_Infinity_ drove the Didact back. He's vulnerable."

Del-Rio glared at them as he left. "He isn't the only one" he replied.

**-**_**CHAPTER END**_**-**

Next Time: The assault on Requiem's gravity-well generator, and the reveal of a couple startling truths.


	5. Reclaimer

**SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS**

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES

**-**_**CHAPTER START**_**-**

**Realm H4-L0 –Forerunner Shield World Requiem**

Two D77H-TCI 'Pelican' dropships flew through a desert canyon, approaching their objective. In the lead 'bird', the 'hero trio' sat with a fireteam of Spartan-IVs.

"Infinity _to Gypsy Company_" Captain del-Rio's voice came out of the troop bay's speakers as, in the center of the bay's floor, his hologram appeared. "_The air corridor to the gravity well is blocked by a network of particle cannons. _Infinity_'s shields are still down. Open the lane for us to move up and provide air support._"

"Captain," the Master Chief spoke up, "what's force-recon's assessment of the terrain?"

"_This is a blowthrough op; sending in recon would just slow us down! Telemetry indicates the particle cannons are being controlled from a command post southwest of our position. Roll on that target, and neutralize those guns. We'll meet on the other side, and take the gravity well. _Infinity _out._"

"I don't know about you guys," Cortana quipped as del-Rio's transmission cut, "but I usually like a little more _intel_ with my intel."

"We'll make it work" Shepard replied as the Pelican touched down and the rear hatch opened, allowing the trio and the S-IVs to disembark.

The trio passed through a short tunnel, and on the other side the canyon was dominated by the humongous M510 'Mammoth' vehicle waiting there – 68.3 meters long, 27.1 high, and 32.8 wide, supported by size wheels (each of them taller than a Hunter standing at full height), with rocket pods and a huge coilgun mounted on top. Shepard, Teana, and the Chief entered through one of the ground-level side hatches, making their way up past weapons racks, marines, a pair of Warthogs, and other supplies. Soon they came out on the 'roof', and found Commander Lasky standing at the front end.

"Chief" he nodded to the group. "Unfortunately for us, we've got to manually bring down a couple of the particle cannons before we can get to the command post. There are a few jetpacks over on the rear side if you want 'em."

"_Gypsy Company,_" del-Rio radioed as the Chief and Shepard retrieved and donned a pair of S-12 jetpacks (Teana knew how to fly, so she declined), "_this is Captain del-Rio. The board is green. Let's shut down that gravity well so we can go home. Good hunting. _Infinity_ out._"

Lasky had entered the control room of the Mammoth, and soon the massive vehicle shuddered as it came online, its engines whirring and roaring.

"_Okay, Gypsy,_" Lasky said as the vehicle began to move, "_time to work for it. Let's shake some dirt!_"

As the Mammoth rolled forward along the edge of the canyon, a trio of Pelicans flew in from the right, moving forward and left, flying in formation in front of and above the huge ground vehicle and rounding the right-hand bend straight ahead.

"_Captain del-Rio,_" Palmer said, "_targeting Pelicans are in position near the particle cannons. Waiting for the Mammoth's mini-MAC to take them out. …766, lose some altitude! You're inside the killbox!_"

"_Almost got target lock; just a little more…_" Pelican 766's pilot replied as the Mammoth rounded the bend, revealing the 490-meter-long starship-grade Forerunner particle cannon floating ahead – spherical in shape, surrounded by three curving 'arms' spaced at equidistant points around the main gun assembly.

There was a charging sound as a light formed and brightened in the core of the cannon's sphere. Before anyone could react, it fired a massive beam of orange light at the dropships; two Pelicans were instantly vaporized, while the third lost its left wing from a 'glancing' blow and was sent careening out of control to the right.

"_Infinity_, Pelicans down!" Lasky reported.

"_Get to the crash site and retrieve that target designator, Gypsy!_" del-Rio ordered. "_We've got no chance of clearing those guns without it!_"

"All teams, we've got Covenant squads digging in on the ridgeline. Weapons free, people!"

The Master Chief manned the left-side rocket turret, with Shepard & Teana standing on either side with sniper rifles out. A barrage of six rockets destroyed an anti-grav watchtower, while sniper fire picked off two Elites further ahead. The marines and Spartan-IVs riding on the Mammoth added their fire, helping the hero trio systematically clear out the ridgeline as the Mammoth drove past it. As they pressed on, they could see a Phantom converging on the crash site.

"_There's Gypsy-7's Pelican,_" Palmer said, "_out in the muck. Anyone still alive?_"

"_We're here!_" the pilot replied. "_We're alive! We've got the target designator._"

"We'll get to them and retrieve it" Shepard said.

The Chief used the rocket turret to take out a pair of Ghosts down below, and then joined Shepard and Teana in dropping down to the ground, the two men using their jetpacks to safely slow their descent. Shepard took out an Elite's shields with an Overload blast, letting the Chief kill the hostile Sangheili with a BR85 3-shot, while Teana used Mirage Marksman-Rifle to take out Grunts and Jackals. As they raced toward the downed Pelican, Shepard saw as an Elite with a sword was charging toward the dropship's marines from the side while they were distracted by the Jackals in front of them. The Commander pulled a Biotic Charge, slamming into the Elite and knocking it into a rock with enough force to break its neck. A frag grenade from the Chief took out the Jackals.

The Master Chief found the target designator, checking to ensure that it was still in working condition. He pointed it at the hostile Phantom that was now harassing the trio, and the Mammoth's coilgun swiveled around. There was a *crack* as the shell was fired at low-relativistic velocity, followed an instant later by a resounding boom as it punched through the Phantom, the dropship exploding both from the damage and the sheer kinetic energy. The trio hurried back over to the Mammoth as the big gun turned while reloading. Just as they got back to the craft, it was ready, so the Chief targeted the nearby particle cannon. Another magnetically-propelled high-explosive shell was sent out, and a mighty explosion blew the particle cannon to bits. With the way clear, everyone boarded the Mammoth.

"_Lasky to _Infinity: _first contact cleared, but no joy on additional targets. Gypsy moving on to securing battle position but requesting evac for casualties._"

"_I'm on it, Commander. Palmer out._"

The Mammoth moved on, rounding a corner to the right to find a pair of Phantoms and some ground troops waiting for them. The mini-MAC obliterated one of the Phantoms, and the other then bugged out, but two Banshees joined in to replace them, firing fuel-rod shots at the Mammoth. Teana and the Master Chief manned the topside rocket turrets, blowing the Covenant aircraft out of the sky, while Shepard led the marines in raining fire down on the Covenant troops below. The Mammoth then veered away from the cliff edge and continued down a wide canyon, with a wide 180-degree path around the edge that led to an 'exit'. However, a massive shimmering blue energy field blocked their progress at the other end.

"Forcefield," Cortana reported, "barricading the far side of this canyon. I'm seeing three power sources. Shut them down so the Mammoth can move through."

The power sources in question were protected by energy barriers – the kind that would stop projectiles but not people – and numerous Covenant forces, including Shade turrets and Ghosts. From the Mammoth's current position 'peeking' its front end into the canyon, Shepard used his sniper rifle to pick off a few turrets' gunners, and a Spartan-IV carrying a sniper rifle loaded with special anti-armor rounds took out one of the Ghosts; the other attack hovercraft 'slid' to the side, taking cover on the other side of the canyon wall.

The trio made their way down, the Master Chief grabbing a rocket launcher as they left the Mammoth and moved into the canyon. They split up, each going for one of the force-field's power sources. Heading for the closest one, the Chief used a plasma grenade to take out the lone, blue-armored Elite guarding it, and then his MA5D assault rifle to mow down the panicking Grunts. A frag grenade destroyed the force-field generator. Meanwhile, Teana moved toward the second generator, the one on the right. This one was lightly guarded – three Jackals and four Grunts; a grenade and a few bursts of automatic fire took care of them, and a plasma grenade from one of the dead Grunts destroyed the generator.

As Shepard headed for the final generator, and the ground rumbled lightly as the Mammoth rolled along the outside-edge 'path', a Phantom flew in ahead and dropped off a Wraith between the Commander and his target. He dove into cover as the Wraith's turret gunner fired at him, but a Ghost moved in close in pursuit, its plasma cannons forcing him back out of cover. Shepard hit the hover-sled with a Throw that overturned it, and then tossed a grenade that killed the ejected pilot, but now the Wraith was shooting at him again, lobbing a plasma mortar that he had to Biotic-Charge to the side to avoid being cooked by. Suddenly, a pair of rockets – fired by the Master Chief, who'd snuck around on the canyon's left side – impacted the backside of the Wraith, destroying the hover-tank. With the way clear, Shepard hurried over to the final generator. He Overloaded the lone Sangheili's shields and then tossed out a Singularity that snagged the Elite and the three Grunts, followed by a Warp to destabilize it and tear them apart. Another Warp destroyed the generator.

Everyone got back on board the Mammoth, which rolled on through where the barrier had been, hanging a right around the rocks. Soon, the second particle cannon was in sight, and the target designator allowed the Mammoth's coilgun to put a round into it, blowing the construct apart. Suddenly, however, as they entered the next section of the canyon, a massive, bulbous Covenant aircraft flew in, about 103 meters long and bristling with weapons. The huge aircraft fired a large bright green beam of electrically-overcharged plasma, cutting it across the Mammoth's top; two marines unable to get out of the way in time were vaporized, and sparks raced across the coilgun.

"_Mammoth's hit!_" Lasky reported. "_Forward traction offline! Primary power controls offline! Damn it, how did Mdama's people get hold of a Lich?-!_"

The Type-56 'Lich' settled in over a mesa nearby, extending its green-tinted gravity lift downward, while two Ghosts and a Wraith entered the area and began firing at the paralyzed Mammoth. The right-side rocket turret opened fire, while a Gauss-Cannon Warthog deployed from the massive vehicle's lower bay. The hero trio quickly made their way down to it, with the Chief taking the wheel and Teana manning the coilgun turret, and Shepard riding shotgun. Shepard hit one of the Ghosts with a Biotic Throw that overturned it, enabling the chaingun of the Mammoth's second Warthog – manned by two Spartan-IVs – to kill the driver, while Teana fired the M68 Gauss Cannon at the second Ghost, destroying it. Both Warthogs then focused on the Wraith, pelting it with .50-caliber rounds and hypersonic explosive slugs. With help from the Mammoth's rocket turret, the Covenant tank was soon destroyed.

The two 'hogs parked at the base of the mesa, and the five armored super-soldiers started their way up, carving through the Grunts and Jackals in their way. At the top, two Elites were quickly dealt with by a plasma grenade from Teana and a shotgun blast from a Spartan-IV. As Teana helped the S-IVs handle a new wave of Elites from off to the side, the Master Chief and Shepard rode the gravity lift up into the Lich. Inside, Shepard immediately released a Biotic Throw that launched two Jackals and two Grunts against the wall behind them hard enough to kill all except one of the Jackals, who was quickly finished off. Making their way up the ramp to the second floor, Shepard Biotically launched the lone Elite guard out through the nearby open hatch to a hundreds-of-feet drop. The Chief gunned down the Grunts, and then went around to the power core and stuck a plasma grenade to it. The explosion tore the core open, fatally destabilizing it, and the Lich began to list and drop, alarms blaring as explosions shook it.

"That did it!" Cortana said. "Time to make an exit!"

Shepard and the Chief leapt out the side hatch, using their jetpacks to slow their descent. The Lich drifted aimlessly out over the ocean, volatile energy coursing through it, until finally it erupted in a massive explosion that tore it to pieces.

"_Thanks, Chief_" Lasky said. "_It was getting a bit dicey there for a minute. All hands, form up on us._"

"_Lasky, this is _Infinity" del-Rio radioed as everyone got back aboard the Mammoth. "_Status._"

"_Mammoth's in pretty bad shape, sir. She'll make it to the objectives as long as nobody starts throwing rocks at us._"

"_Not a chance we can take. I'm sending teams out to pull some of their fire off you so you can make it to the gravity well._"

"_Roger that, sir. Gypsy, let's move._"

"_Shadow Company. Castle Company. Put some pressure on those other particle cannons._"

"_Castle reading five by five. On station, ready to assist._"

"_Shadow Actual to _Infinity_: Encountering enemy air! Significant EOF closer to the emplacements._"

The Mammoth started rolling, moving along the cliff-side and over several tributaries with fairly strong currents. After about a minute of travel, they rounded a corner and were faced with a dead end, the canyon blocked by massive boulders even the Mammoth couldn't roll over. A small path led up to a Forerunner structure on the left.

"_117, Lasky._"

"Go, Commander."

"_We've got significant blockage up ahead. Think this is about it for the Mammoth._"

"The command post for the particle cannons is through that trench" Cortana said.

"We'll go on ahead, Lasky" Shepard said.

"We'll see you back on the _Infinity_, Commander" Teana added.

"_Good luck, then. Lasky out._"

The trio made their way down, heading through the rocky path. In the next area ahead, they caught sight of a Promethean Knight warping out, though not before it pointed them out to the Grunts and Jackals in this area. The trio took cover behind the rocks as plasma bolts were sent their way, and Teana threw a frag grenade that took out a Jackal and two Grunts. Shepard Overloaded the other Jackal's shield, using his pistol to put the slender alien down, while the Chief used his BR85 to clear out the remaining Grunts. A particle-beam shot from a Jackal Sniper barely missed Shepard's head as he by chance bent down to inspect something, and Teana immediately spotted and shot the Kig-Yar with Mirage Sniper.

Moving into the trench, Shepard used his N7 Valiant to pick off two more snipers on the left, and the trio then started making their way up the rocky 'ramp'. A pack of Grunts was in their way, while another Jackal sniper had taken up position up on the rocks, firing a shot that came so close to the Chief it made his shields flare. The Spartan-II tossed a grenade to clear out the Grunts, and Teana took out the sniper. At the top, they could see the Forerunner structure dead ahead, with another Grunt pack in their way, as well as two or three snipers up on the multi-leveled entrance area of the structure. As before, Shepard and Teana picked off the snipers while the Master Chief dealt with the Grunts and shield-bearing Jackals in their path.

Reaching the structure and making their way up, Shepard hit a pair of suicide-bomber Grunts with a Biotic Throw that launched them into a crowd of Grunts and Jackals, the quadruple grenade detonation setting off some of the plasma grenades carried by the other Grunts, creating a chain-reaction explosion that vaporized the lot of them. Advancing, they were attacked by a Promethean Crawler pack and a Knight; an Overload from Shepard de-shielded the Knight, a Mirage Rifle shot to the head took the bipedal construct down, and the Chief's assault rifle made short work of the Crawlers.

Making their way up the structure's ramps, they were met by three more Knights with a pack of Grunts & Jackals. The Chief fired a rocket to obliterate one Knight, Shepard Overloaded and sniped the second and then threw out a Singularity that snatched up some Grunts for a grenade to wipe out, and Teana used Crossfire Convergence on the third Knight, conjuring multiple orange energy bolts surrounding the construct and then clenching her fist to make them all shoot inwards at once, wiping out the mech's shields and blowing a few limbs off, leaving it helpless against a follow-up killshot. Without their powerful leaders, the remaining Grunts and Jackals were easy pickings, wiped out in less than half a minute. Arriving at the top of the structure, the trio entered a door, moving down a short ramp into the facility.

"Cortana to _Infinity_: we're entering the Forerunner structure."

Captain del-Rio's reply was fouled by static, completely incomprehensible, though the data sent with it came through.

"Breaking up, but coordinates received, _Infinity_."

Entering the structure, they saw as a Sentinel – yellow on their motion trackers – flew past them, heading left. It stopped by the door to the left, turning to face the three humans. Curious, they came closer, and as they did the Sentinel opened the door, flying through into the next short hallway and opening another door leading to an elevator, which carried the trio down.

"This elevator should take us directly to the coordinates _Infinity_ provided" Cortana said. "…It's almost like those Sentinels _want _us to get the particle cannons offline."

"This could be a trap" the Master Chief said.

"You say that like there's a _second_ possibility."

At the bottom of the elevator ride, a curving hallway led them into a chamber with two doors. The Sentinels locked the door on the left, and congregated by the one straight ahead, 'looking' at the human trio. They moved through, and the hovering constructs led them down a hallway to the right, into a long room lined by huge, thick pillars surrounded by revolving rings on either side. At the far end of the narrow walkway, they found the controls for the particle cannon network; of the four holographic cannons 'connected' to the central sphere, two had gone dark. The Chief slotted Cortana into the control panel.

"The particle cannon network must use these arrays for targeting and guidance" she said. "It's an automated system so it won't technically allow me to redirect the cannons to fire on one another... _Technically_."

The complex briefly shuddered, and then both remaining cannons went dark on the display.

"Cortana to _Infinity_: the guns should be offline. How's it look from up there? …_Infinity_?"

"Cortana?"

"Something's in here… Chief!"

Suddenly, Cortana's hologram vanished, and a small flash of light accompanied her data-chip being teleported away. Before the trio could try to figure out what happened, a Sentinel hovered up behind them and made a metallic 'chirp' sound, getting their attention. It led them halfway back down the walkway, and to a light-bridge that had now formed. They followed it into what looked like maintenance passageways, coming out into a two-leveled room with five Sentinels waiting by a door. The door opened as they approached, revealing a beam of blue light with Cortana standing inside it. They stepped into the beam, and everything went white.

-_Break_-

Finding themselves standing in a new location, the Master Chief, Commander Shepard, and Teana shielded their eyes from the light of Requiem's artificial sun. Suddenly, they saw a figure slowly descending from above – female in shape, her exposed face human-like but not quite human, clad in a tight, luminescent white dress-like outfit with an elaborate headdress and a small anti-gravity dais. Her very presence 'felt' warm and comforting.

"Who are you?" the Master Chief asked.

"I am an imprint of the Forerunner once known as the Librarian" she replied. "My memories were retained to assist humanity on their path to the Mantle. Though sadly, that plan is now at risk. The Didact, and the lost soul who follows him, are leaving Requiem soon. You must not allow him to."

"Why is he leaving?" Teana asked.

"He seeks this" the Librarian's 'living memory' gestured to a hologram of a massive Forerunner device, tall and thin. "The Composer – a device that will allow him to finally contain the greatest enemy ever faced by the Forerunners: …you."

They turned their gaze to her, and as they caught her eyes they were 'pulled into' a vision – shifting colors and sounds faded into the overview of a hectic, large-scale battle on a snowy world between Forerunner forces and power-armored figures with distinctly human appearance.

"Humanity spread into the stars with an unexpected desperate violence" the Librarian's voice echoed. "Entire systems fell before the Didact's Warrior-Servants rose to halt the aggression. When the Didact finally exhausted the humans after a millennium, his sentence was severe…"

An image of a human screaming and writhing as his very DNA was violated, forcibly de-evolved.

"We had no way of knowing that the Forerunners were not your true enemy. Humanity hadn't been expanding; they were _running_. Their 'invasion' into Forerunner systems was in fact their flight from human systems consumed by the Flood, and the Forerunner worlds they burned had all been infected beforehand. Even the two new races of human they created through their genetic engineering – the ones you call 'Saiyans', meant to stand against the might of the Prometheans' fiercest warriors," a figure shrouded in golden light trading blows with an elite Promethean general, "and the race called 'Diclonius' forged to carve through the Flood's advance and excise their corruption" a squad of small-horned humans in armor, particle-rifles firing and telekinetic limbs slicing through Combat Forms as they moved in unison, joined together into a single unit by their racial psionic link "– were not enough. They barely managed to send a few 'samples' of their 'children' to other Realms, to spare them the Didact's vengeance.

"Weakened by our conflict, and by divisions amongst our upper echelons, we could not stand against the Parasite that had pursued you, especially when they developed to the point of being able to awaken and harness Precursor constructions against us. The Forerunners made plans for a pyrrhic solution – a final 'Great Journey'. But the Didact refused to yield our Mantle of Responsibility. He would save all life in the galaxy… at a cost. …In the Forerunners' quest for transcendence, the Composer had been intended to bridge the organic and digital realms. It would have made us immortal."

A strand of DNA, converted to digital form… and then warping and blackening, twisting in ways that matter shouldn't.

"But the results soured; the stored personalities fragmented, and our attempts to return them to biological states created only abominations. Such moral concerns faded from the Didact's attention. The Flood only assimilated living tissue. The Composer would provide the Didact his solution… and his revenge."

The vision ended, 'returning' the shocked trio to reality.

"The Promethean Knights…" the Master Chief said, a bit of shock in his low, iron tone. "They're _human_."

"They _used_ to be…" the Librarian replied sadly. "They were only the beginning. He would have harvested your entire species had we not removed the Composer from his 'care' and imprisoned him here. Reclaimers… When I indexed humanity for repopulation, I hid 'seeds' from the Didact – genetic commands that would lead to an eventuality." She focused on the Master Chief. "Your physical evolution, your combat skin… even your ancilla partner, Cortana… You, John, are the culmination of 1,000 lifetimes of planning."

"Planning for what?" the Master Chief asked.

Suddenly, the area began to rumble. The Librarian's living memory turned to the side with a worried gaze.

"He has found us…" she whispered.

"_**E**__ven in death,_" the Didact's flanging voice rang out as rising pillars carried Promethean Knights into the area, "_her meddling contin__**u**__es…_"

"Reclaimer, the 'gene-song' I placed within you contains many gifts, including an immunity to the Composer. But it must be unlocked."

"How?"

"_Relin__**q**__uish your contact essence!_"

"Your evolutionary journey must be accelerated – your genetic coding altered, the geas I placed 100 millennia ago awakened."

"What about us?" Teana spoke up. "Shepard and I aren't from this Realm; we won't have the genetic commands you imprinted!"

"I managed to implant the alterations in the entire extant human population back then; implanting it into two humans right now will be easy."

"Can we defeat the Didact without it?" Shepard asked.

"No, you cannot."

"Then do it" the Master Chief said.

The Librarian nodded. "Prepare."

Again, everything went silent and white. And as she was lost in this, Teana heard the Librarian's voice one last time:

"For you, dear, an extra gift, to aid you in the battles to come…"

-_Break_-

The light faded back into the world, depositing the trio back into the chamber they'd been in. After a moment, three Crawlers came charging up the ramp toward them, only for a Shockwave attack from Shepard to send them flying. The Master Chief spotted Cortana on a nearby terminal/pedestal, and hurried over to retrieve her, slotting her data-chip back into his helmet.

"How do we get out of here?" he asked her.

"Elevator," she replied, "back of the chamber."

Heading towards the elevator door, they found more Crawlers and two Knights in their way. As the Chief used his assault rifle to hunt down the Crawlers, Teana threw a plasma grenade scavenged from earlier, sticking one of the Knights in the face and destroying the construct. Shepard hit the other Knight with Overload, followed by a focused barrage of SMG fire and a Biotically-boosted punch. With the way clear, they stepped into the elevator, riding it down.

"Chief, what happened to you three?" Cortana asked. "Your bio-readings are all over the map!"

"It's a long story," the S-II replied, "but we know what the Didact's after."

"I know that part; the Librarian filled me in when she snatched me from the system. But what I _don't_ know is what she did to _you_."

At the bottom of the lift, they followed a long hallway to a personnel-scale slipspace portal. Stepping through, they were transported into a desert area; the spire of the gravity-well generator was nearby, the _Infinity_ was close by overhead on the left, and human & Covenant forces were in the midst of a large-scale armor battle.

"_I'm reading Sierra-117 on sensors! Everyone, form up on the Chief!_"

One of the Scorpion tanks drove up nearby, and the driver got out. The Master Chief nodded in thanks as he climbed in, with Shepard manning the MG turret and Teana joining a trio of Spartan-IVs on the tread-seats.

"Sierra-117 to _Infinity_: what's our status?"

"_We're taking a beating up here!_" Captain del-Rio replied.

"Does _Infinity_ have a shot on the gravity well?" the Spartan asked as he used the tank's cannon to obliterate a hostile Ghost that was pursuing a Warthog.

"_Negative! We'll never be able to target lock with all the air traffic we're seeing!_"

"Could we use the target designator to spot the target for you guys?" Shepard asked.

"…_Affirmative! TAC-COM, find them coordinates for somewhere with line-of-sight!_"

The Scorpions and Warthogs moved up the hill together, tank cannons scrapping a pair of Wraiths while the 'hogs mowed down infantry. A third Wraith came in from the other side of a rock arch ahead, but didn't even get the chance to fire before it was blown to pieces. Passing under the arch, they found a Covenant shield blocking the way to the gravity well. A quick scan pinpointed the locations of two generators nearby. A Phantom flew in, preparing to drop a Wraith in to join the two already here, but the human vehicles focused fire and actually managed to shoot the Covenant dropship down.

After a wave of cannon fire took out the two Wraiths and their ground escort, the tanks couldn't fit up the path to the generators, but the Warthogs and Mongooses could. The vehicles rolled up, passengers wielding rocket launchers, and bombarded the infantry surrounding the generators; the marines and Spartan-IVs then took out the generators themselves, bringing the energy barrier down.

"There's a clearing just past this ravine" Cortana said. "We can get eyes on the gravity well up there!"

The trio disembarked from their Scorpion, clambering over the rocks and hurrying down the ravine. Soon they reached a rock outcropping overlooking the gravity-well generator – a massive silver spire with a brilliant orange light at the base center, dozens of huge rocks orbiting around the entire complex. The _Infinity_ hovered nearby, warheads ready. The Chief pulled out the target designator, activating it and pointing it at the base of the gravity-well generator. A missile launched from the _Infinity_, rocketing downward right toward the glowing center of the generator. With a massive explosion, the orange light went out. The 'orbiting' rocks plummeted, and the spires surrounding the generator began to crumble and fall.

**-**_**Break**_**-**

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_** Bridge**

The 5700-meter dreadnought soared leisurely above the low clouds, passing amongst countless hovering towers. Inside the command center, the Master Chief, Cortana, Teana, Shepard, Del-Rio, Lasky, and Palmer were gathered around the holo-table.

"_Infinity_ cannot handle that kind of punishment" Del-Rio said. "Not again."

"This isn't about us or this ship anymore!" Cortana countered.

"Sir," the Master Chief spoke up, "we've seen what the Didact is capable of. If we let him leave this world, humanity will be at risk."

"Look, I know what you think you saw-"

"_Think_?" Cortana and Teana snapped simultaneously.

"With all due respect, _sir_," the Chief said, annoyance creeping into his tone, "I _know _what we saw."

"And with all due respect to _you_, soldier," Del-Rio glared at the Spartan, "I'm not willing to jeopardize my ship because of the _hallucinations_ of an aging Spartan, a _corpse_ reanimated by _Cerberus_, and a _child_!"

"Sir," Lasky spoke up, "what if they're right?"

Del-Rio gave Lasky a disbelieving look, before turning to the ship's navigation team.

"Nav," he said, "as soon as we know we're airtight, I wand a course laid in to Carinae Station. Comm, prepare a warning beacon."

"…You're a complete idiot." Shepard said.

Del-Rio rounded on him. "You don't talk to a superior officer that way, _Commander._"

"Well if not an idiot," Teana chimed in, "then perhaps a _traitor_? I mean, aiding and abetting a Forerunner war criminal by willingly allowing him to escape his prison and resume his campaign of human extermination… That sounds a little treasonous to _me_…"

The Captain was about to go off on her, but the Master Chief interrupted. "If you won't stop the Didact," he pulled Cortana's data-chip out and returned it into his helmet, "then _we _will."

"You are not going off chasing your imaginations!" the old man snarled. "You are coming back with us to Earth, either by your own choice or locked up in our brig with court-martials for gross insubordination!"

The Master Chief stood tall, glaring down at the man. "_No, sir_" he rumbled.

Del-Rio's face was red with rage, as he turned to the S-IV's commander. "Spartan Palmer, detain them! Arrest them!"

"Um," Palmer replied, "any one of those three could snap me like a goddamn toothpick. I'm not that stupid."

"Lasky," the Chief said, "get word to Earth that trouble is coming. We'll stay here and do what we can."

As the trio turned to leave, Del-Rio started toward them, drawing his pistol. In response, Shepard hit the Captain with a Biotic Stasis-field, freezing him in place. Lasky let out a sigh and Palmer shook her head as they watched the hero trio go.

**-**_**CHAPTER END**_**-**

Next Time: Trying to stop the Didact from leaving.


	6. Shutdown

**SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS**

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES

**-**_**CHAPTER START**_**-**

**Realm H4-L0 – Forerunner Shield World Requiem – **_**Infinity**_** Vehicle Bay**

The 'hero trio' – the Master Chief, Commander Shepard, and Teana – stood by one of _Infinity_'s windows, looking out at the impressive view.

"Even after all this time," Teana said, "it still gets to me sometimes just how advanced the Forerunners were, what they could do. I mean… artificial stars, planet-sized megastructures, implanting species-wide genetic commands that can stay dormant for over 100,000 years…"

"Yeah," Shepard added, "and now we're getting to find out what their soldiers could do in person."

They turned as Commander Lasky walked up. "So," the dreadnought's XO said, "what's the plan?"

"_Infinity_'s tracked the Didact's vessel to a docking structure southeast of here" the Master Chief replied. "We'll jump ship as _Infinity_ exits the roof."

"…You know, I was sent down here with orders to prevent you from leaving... In case you had already gone, I took the precaution of ordering a Pelican, outfitted for full combat pursuit."

They turned to face the inner hangar as a gunship-model Pelican – armed with a 70mm autocannon and a Grindell/Galilean laser cannon on the nose, a 90mm turret-mounted cannon on the dorsal section, and railgun turrets on the sides, along with the Pelican-standard array of air-to-air missiles in launchers installed just in front of the bases of the wings – was brought up on an elevator.

"I hope to God you're wrong about that Forerunner," Lasky continued, "or whatever he is. But in the event you're not…" He nodded to the gunship. "Good luck, you guys."

As Commander Lasky walked away, the group looked out at the waiting gunship and the handful of marines in the hangar bay.

"The Didact used that 'Composer' to forcibly create the Prometheans from ancient humans" Cortana said. "If he wants to finish the job, he'll have to find it first. Our best bet to stop him is keep him firmly on Requiem. Let's hope Lasky didn't skimp on that Pelican."

As they made their way through the hangar, the marines and Spartan-IVs that were 'meant' to detain/arrest them instead waved them on, saluted them, and cheered for them to kick some ass. They boarded the gunship, with the Master Chief taking the pilot's seat, Shepard as copilot, and Teana manning the topside turret cannon. As the aircraft's engines came online, Cortana ran diagnostics as the elevator carried it down into a launch tunnel.

Once the all-clear was given, the Chief hit the thrusters, and the Pelican sped down the tunnel, shooting out of the _Infinity_ and into (artificial) daylight. Behind them, the _Infinity_ lifted off, the vessel's powerful thrusters propelling it away at speed, vanishing up into the clouds. Ahead, a field of inverted spires hung around Requiem's entrance portal, patrolled by several of Mdama's cruisers. The Didact's cryptum was directly at the center, surrounded by an orange energy field.

"How do we get inside those shields?" the Chief asked.

"I'm marking two of the larger facilities on the Heads-Up Display" Cortana replied. "They're acting as traffic control for resources moving to and from the satellite. If we disrupt their communications, I can forge an override code and convince it to lower those defenses."

The Pelican moved toward the tower on the left, finding the landing pad guarded by a quartet of Phantoms. The Chief fired the laser cannon at the closest one, dealing significant damage, and Teana fired a shot from the topside cannon that finished it off. The other three Phantoms took notice, moving in towards them, firing their chin-mounted plasma turrets but too far away to accurately hit the Pelican as the Chief swayed it to the side to dodge a few that got close. Shepard fired a wave of AAMs at the next Phantom, the resulting damage leaving the craft barely in the air, and a quick burst from the 70mm autocannon finished it off. The other two Phantoms didn't fare too much better, brought down by laser-cannon and 90mm cannon shots.

"This tower's directing traffic to the Didact's satellite through a carrier wave generator located somewhere inside" Cortana reported. "Of course, if _Infinity_ wasn't on their way back to Earth, locating and disabling it would be trivial."

"We can handle it" Shepard replied.

"That's hardly the point, is it?"

The Pelican was set down and shut down, and the trio piled out. Weapons racks along the sides of the ship provided some ordnance – the Chief and Shepard grabbed jetpacks, with the Spartan-II also grabbing an ARC-920 railgun to compliment his DMR, Shepard taking an M739 LMG, and Teana loading up on frag grenades. They moved into the structure, down a few short halls, and entered the main chamber. The carrier-wave generator could be clearly seen on the other end of a huge chasm. An anti-grav gondola was parked nearby. They boarded the craft, and a beam formed from the other side of the room, slowly pulling the gondola across.

"To take a page out of our old playbook," Cortana said, "I'm going to tune your shields to emit an EMP at the same frequency as the communication network. All you'll need to do to trigger it is to make physical contact with the carrier wave generator."

As the gondola approached a multi-leveled complex on the right, a beam-rifle shot narrowly missed Shepard, and he & the other two dove for cover. The Commander looked through the scope of his N7 Valiant, spotting a Jackal Sniper on the right; he fired, killing the Jackal, and a second later a shot from Mirage Sniper took out a second one. However, as the gondola came up beside the complex, it slowed and began to 'park', and Covenant forces began firing at the group from the right.

"Why have we stopped?" Teana asked.

"The Covenant have overridden the gondola controls!" Cortana replied.

"Light up the override console on our HUDs" the Chief ordered.

Cortana did so, and the trio disembarked from the gondola and moved into the structure, gunning down a Grunt pack just across the light-bridge. They made their way up and around, a frag grenade taking out a pair of Jackals, and found the override controls guarded by three Elites – two blue-armored and one 'Ranger'. A shot from the Chief's railgun blew the Ranger's upper torso open, while a barrage of fire from Shepard's SAW took down one of the blue-armored Elites, and Teana brought a Mirage Longsword to bear and slashed across the other one's chest, the superheated energy blade cutting deep into the hostile Sangheili's lungs and hearts, with the transferred force of the blow also knocking the mortally-wounded Elite back over the nearby ledge.

With the area clear, the Master Chief hit the override, releasing the lock. The second he did this, however, a quartet of Promethean Knights warped in, led by a Commander-type that immediately began firing its Lightrifle at the trio at a high rate and with worrying accuracy. They dove into cover, and when one of the Knights pursued them behind the barricade Shepard unloaded on it with his machinegun, the barrage of rounds close-range battering down the construct's shields and tearing through it in less than a second & a half of sustained fire.

As the Knight disintegrated into glowing orange particles, Teana grabbed a plasma grenade from a dead Elite and tossed it at another Knight with a Suppressor, sticking it in the face and destroying it. Shepard leaned out from cover and hit the Knight Commander with an Overload, its durable shields being brought down close to zero, enough that the Chief's follow-up railgun shot punched through and destroyed the bipedal war-mech. The final Knight retreated onto the gondola, joining a pack of Promethean Crawlers that had taken up residence on it. The Chief's DMR, Shepard's Valiant, and Teana's Mirage Marksman-Rifle systematically picked off the little quadruped droids, and then Shepard Biotic-Charged into the lone Knight, knocking it back and taking down its shields, leaving it open to a quick killing burst of SAW fire. The other two hurried to re-board the gondola, and then Shepard set it moving again. Suddenly, as the gondola started up again, two more Knights warped in aboard it.

"They're not gonna make this easy, are they?" Cortana remarked.

Teana immediately shifted her Device to Shotgun Mode, two blasts taking out the closest Knight. The other one tried to charge at the Chief, swinging its hard-light blade downward, but the Spartan caught the Knight's wrist and snapped the blade's projector off, and then spun the weapon around and rammed it through the Knight's face, stepping back to let it topple over as it broke apart into particles. The gondola continued on, approaching another multi-leveled complex on the left. Suddenly, Teana spotted the red glow amongst the multiple levels, and immediately cast a high-strength Round Shield that blocked the Binary Rifle shot from the Knight Lancer trying to get a bead on the trio. She readied Mirage Sniper, and two shots took out the Lancer's shields and its head.

Again the gondola came to a stop, overridden by the Prometheans on the multi-leveled structure. Teana sniped a pair of Watchers hovering around, and the trio then moved onto the structure, Shepard's SAW making short work of a Crawler pack. The Chief used his railgun to blast a Battlewagon-type Knight standing guard by the override console, and when a Watcher flew out of hiding to try to restore the Knight it got zapped down by Shepard's Overload. The trio moved up to the console and deactivated the override; they were almost there.

As in response to that, another group of Knights phased in, including a Commander-type wielding a Z390 Incineration Cannon. They all fired at once, Suppressor and Lightrifle shots joined by the glowing red bolts from the heavy weapon. Shepard formed a high-level Biotic Barrier around himself, the Master Chief, and Teana, wincing as the heavy shot impacted it, and then turned it into a shockwave that knocked two Knights back, followed by hitting the Commander with an Overload; the Knight leader warped back several meters into cover to let its shields recharge.

Suddenly, Teana spun around, activating both Mirage Longswords, and brought her energy blades up to block a downward strike from the two crimson lightsaber-type blades wielded by Eve T'Lesh, the Lucavi clad in black armor with orange lights, the Fallen's symbol on the back of her left gauntlet and the Didact's on the right, her visor depolarized to show her glowing red eyes. She pushed against Teana, but the power-armored redhead proved stronger, shoving her blades back and lashing out with a kick to Eve's midsection that made her shields flare. The fallen Lucavi snarled and then charged in again.

While Eve and Teana kept each other busy, the Master Chief and Commander Shepard engaged the Knights. Shepard Biotic-Charged into the Knight Commander, stunning it and taking down its shields. The Master Chief blasted it with his railgun, destroying it, and Shepard grabbed the dropped Incineration Cannon, turning it on the other Knights and firing; the red compound blasts destroyed two Knights and damaged a third, which was then finished off by a headshot from the Chief's DMR.

With the Knights dead, they turned their attention back to the girls, in time to see Eve – overwhelmed by Teana's offense – 'jump' out. After catching their breath, the trio moved on to the carrier-wave generator, with bright orange beam of light was in the center. The Master Chief stepped into the beam, and after about a second his shields pulsed out, firing off an EMP effect right into the heart of the generator, shutting it down.

'_The others scatter like embers over sand,_' the Didact's voice was heard, '_and yet the Librarian's champions are unmoved…_'

A squadron of Promethean Watchers floated in, firing their blasters at the trio. Shepard blocked the shots with a Biotic Barrier, and Teana fired a wave of orange mana bolts that curved out and slammed into the hostile flyers, destroying them.

"Well done" Cortana said as they boarded the gondola and started it back across the chasm. "All communications to the satellite have been cut."

'_The Mantle of Responsibility shelters all, humans, but only the Forerunners are its masters._"

"Where's that coming from?" Shepard asked.

"Where's _what_ coming from?" Cortana replied.

"The Didact's voice" Teana said. "…Damn it, that's telepathy! He can use magic!"

"Well," the Master Chief chimed in, "didn't the Gravemind mention that those 'Al Hazred' people developed their tech _and_ their magic from reverse-engineering the Forerunners'?"

"Yeah, I remember that the Forerunners had magic. But all the evidence I've found suggested that most Forerunner mages were among the Lifeworker caste. I guess the Didact broke that trend; more bad news for us…"

After an uneventful ride, the gondola reached the other side and the trio got out and made their exit, returning to the landing pad and the gunship.

"Covenant air traffic's increasing" Cortana reported as they started the Pelican back up. "If we don't disable the other tower quickly, reaching the Didact could become exponentially more difficult."

The gunship jetted over to the second tower, finding it guarded by five Phantoms. Once more, the gunship's laser-cannon, 70mm autocannon, and topside 90mm tank-style cannon made short work of the hostile dropships, and then it set down on the landing pad.

"Guys," Cortana said, "there's a lot more comm. traffic passing through this tower than just what's servicing the Didact's satellite. These systems use data attenuators to regulate the flow of communications. Destroying those would drown out the towers' transmissions. The towers' instructions to the Didact's shields would be drowned in noise."

Entering the structure, they came into a hallway populated by a Watcher and a Crawler pack. Shepard threw out a Singularity, snatching the whole group up, and a barrage of fire from the hero trio ripped the helpless Promethean droids apart. After this short battle, they entered the main chamber, Shepard using Overload to destroy a Watcher straight ahead.

"The tower's attenuator would most likely be housed in a Faraday enclosure" Cortana said. "Let's see if we can find its controls around here somewhere…"

Two more Watchers got in the way as the trio advanced into the chamber, and were brought down by Shepard's SAW. They got up onto the central platform – Teana with a chakra-powered leap, Chief & Shepard with their jetpacks – and hit the button they found there.

"Okay," Cortana said as the walls reassembled themselves into bridges, "the structure actually contains _three_ attenuators. We'll have to sever all three connections."

They moved to the right and forward, heading for one of the attenuators. A Knight, two Watchers, and a Crawler pack phased in to block their path and protect the device. A Crossfire Shot wave shot down the Watchers, while a frag grenade from Shepard took out most of the Crawlers, a Biotic Throw disabling the rest. The Master Chief blasted the Knight with a railgun round, and then the trio moved up to the attenuator – a glowing bluish-white orb about four feet across hanging in midair in an armored alcove. An Overload from Shepard destroyed it.

'_Your actions tread between honor and foolishness_' the Didact's voice echoed in the human trio's heads.

They heard as a Knight phased in behind them, and turned just as it deployed a Watcher. Shepard Biotic-Charged in, knocking the Knight back, and then brought it down with SAW fire while the Chief used his DMR to swat the Watcher. Crossing the area, they found three Watchers and a few Crawler Alphas between them and the second attenuator. Teana threw a 'Pulse Grenade' taken from a nearby weapons rack, and one of the Watchers caught the weapon with its tractor beam. The Chief promptly shot the grenade before the Watcher could toss it back, triggering it and destroying all three of the flyers; a few pistol shots from Shepard took out the Crawlers.

As they walked up to the second attenuator, a Knight suddenly phased in, and Shepard had to act fast, bringing up his Omniblade to block a swing of the Knight's hard-light blade. As the 3-meter-tall construct began to out-muscle Shepard, it was struck from the side by two point-blank blasts from Mirage Shotgun, destroying it. Teana then turned her weapon on the attenuator, to the same result.

Hurrying toward the final attenuator, they found that the remaining Prometheans in the area had gathered to try and stop them – a dozen Crawlers, three Watchers, and a pair of Knights, one of which was a Battlewagon-type with a Scattershot. Again, Teana cleared out the Watchers with a precision Crossfire Shot barrage, while Shepard and the Chief threw a few frag grenades to destroy most of the Crawlers. Shepard Biotic-Charged the standard Knight, knocking it back and de-shielding it, and then lunged forward, stabbing his Omniblade into the construct's face, 'killing' it. The Chief, meanwhile, blasted the Knight Battlewagon with his railgun. With that done, the Spartan-II then destroyed the final attenuator.

'_Even now, your kind tinkers with the Composer in the shadow of the third ring – children and fire, who disregard the welfare of the galaxy._'

"Judging by the activity I just picked up in the Chief's auditory cortex," Cortana spoke up, "I'm guessing the Didact just 'said' something to you three again?"

"The researchers at Ivanoff Station orbiting Halo-03 have found the Composer" Shepard replied. "If the Didact and his Covenant get there, we could be looking at a lot of casualties."

"Then let's make sure we keep him here" the Master Chief said.

"Well, in any case," the AI said, "I don't think we'll be having any more trouble with those shields."

Making their way back toward the exit, through the initial hallway, they were unpleasantly surprised as a Commander-type Knight with an Incineration Cannon warped in right between them and the door. They dove for cover, but it launched a Pulse Grenade that forced them out into the open, and then fired its heavy weapon. Shepard Biotic-Charged back and away, while Teana flash-stepped to do the same, and the Chief managed to out-speed the explosions, dashing to the side and firing a railgun shot that knocked the Knight Commander back, stunning it. An Overload from Shepard did further damage, and a few shots to the head from Mirage Rifle finished the job. They hurried outside, back to the Pelican.

'_Do you truly believe these theatrics can prevent my departure?_' the Didact asked as the Pelican lifted off. '_Embrace your sad fate, and retain your nobility. I am already beyond you._'

"He knows what we're trying to do!" Cortana said. "If we try to get too close to that ship, we're _dead_. …I have an idea. Head for this WayPoint."

She marked one of the many floating towers in the area, and the Pelican sped toward it.

"Those defense spires we keep running into are being controlled from this tower" she continued. "Get me to the control room and we might be able to reposition them to block the Didact's ship from leaving."

As the dropship approached, the spire's surface split into segments, uncovering the entrance and creating a landing pad. Setting the gunship down, they hopped out and hurried inside, stepping into a gravity lift that carried them upward.

'_You will relent, humans, or you will perish! All in life is choice… and your day to choose has come…_'

Reaching the top, they started forward, only for the path ahead to separate into fragments and float away. They diverted right, hopping over a gap that suddenly formed; the entirety of this level of the tower was composed of large hovering platforms linked by 'solid' or hard-light bridges, and was occupied by a sizable force of Covenant. On this first platform, a Grunt pack was quickly mowed down by Shepard's SAW, and they went around and crossed a light-bridge to a second platform occupied by more Grunts and an Elite. A blast from Mirage Shotgun put the Sangheili terrorist down, while the Master Chief hip-fired his DMR to clear out most of the Grunts, the last two being taken out by a Biotic Throw from Shepard.

The next platform had another Elite, with Grunt and Jackal support; an Overload and pistol headshot from Shepard dealt with the former, while a couple frag grenades from the Chief and Teana cleared out the latter. Suddenly they had to scatter to dodge a shot from a fuel-rod gun wielded by an Elite on the next platform. Shepard Biotic-Charged the Elite, and then stuck it with a plasma grenade that finished the job.

"I'm seeing a control system at the top of the tower!" Cortana said. "We need to be there yesterday!"

On the final platform on this level, a pair of Hunters descended from the gravity lift. The Master Chief fired a railgun shot at one, but the beast's shield – made of starship-grade armor plating – withstood the shot, and then it returned fired with a fuel-rod cannon shot that just barely missed the trio. Teana rushed at the closest Hunter, rolling to dodge a shot from its FRG and getting in close. She ducked under a swing of its massive shield, getting in behind the best, and then rammed Mirage Longsword up into it through the lower-back gap in its armor. She thrashed the superheated energy blade around inside, quickly doing enough damage that the Hunter collapsed. The other Hunter roared in fury and charged toward her, but Shepard got in its path, firing SAW rounds that forced it to stop and shield its 'face'. The Master Chief slipped behind it, and fired a railgun shot into the vulnerable spot, the supersonic explosive shell blowing the Hunter in half; a grenade finished it off.

After a long gravity-lift ride up, they arrived in a very large open area with more towers/platforms connected by light bridges; the plentiful open space was patrolled by a few Banshees, and Shade turrets were mounted on some of the platforms. On a platform straight ahead, an Elite was patrolling between two parked Banshees; he turned and saw the humans, but a railgun shot took him out before he could act. The Master Chief and Shepard took the two Banshees, lifting off from the platform, and two hostile Banshees spotted and flew toward them, firing their plasma cannons. As one got close, however, Teana flew up and grabbed hold of it, swinging around to the back, prying the cockpit open, ripping the Elite pilot out, and then climbing in.

Over the next few minutes, they methodically cleared the entire area – shooting down Banshees, blasting Shade turrets with fuel-rod cannon shots, and strafing ground forces with plasma cannons. Once all that was left was a few scattered Grunts, they flew to the far end of the chamber and set down, passing through the door. In the control room, a large window overlooked the Didact's cryptum, hovering ominously amongst the towers, as well as the multiple Covenant Liches and light cruisers in the area. The Master Chief quickly pulled Cortana's chip out of his helmet and slotted it into the terminal, and soon the massive spires moved to surround the huge black & orange sphere, physically blocking it from launching.

"There we go" Cortana's avatar nodded, hands on her hips. "Now he's got no choice but to stay right where he-"

The cryptun's orange portions suddenly glowed very brightly, and the air around the massive hovering sphere visibly distorted as a shockwave was released from it, blowing the spires away, some of them coming apart as they fell.

"…Or," Cortana winced, looking embarrassed and sounding a bit sheepish, "he could… use a system built into his satellite to… do that… Do we have a Plan B?"

The Master Chief pulled Cortana out and put her back into his helmet, looking out the window. "…Track those Liches" he ordered her. "We can go across them to get to the Didact's ship."

"Wait… _Across_ them?-!"

"Yes."

"Um… Okay, then. There are several Liches moving in formation toward the Didact's ship" The floor beneath them lowered, acting as lift to bring them onto an outdoor platform. "We're only going to have one shot at this. …Okay, _go_!"

The trio took a running leap over the edge, plummeting through the sky and down toward a Lich below them. Teana triggered her magic-based flight to give herself some extra control, and when they got close the Chief & Shepard activated their jetpacks to slow their descent, landing hard on the Lich's roof. Both began to slide off, but Teana formed a Stage-0 _Susanō_ arm and caught Shepard, while the Chief dug his combat knife into the hull to arrest his own fall.

Above them, the Didact's cryptum plummeted down. An entry point opened up in the 'ground', allowing it access. Then, the ground parted, as an _enormous_ Forerunner warship emerged from below. It flew upward, surrounded by hundreds of Liches and Phantoms including the one that the trio were riding on. Above, Requiem's entrance portal opened wide, allowing the fleet to exit the Shield-World; the trio hurriedly made sure their suits were in vacuum-sealed mode before they broke free from the artificial world's atmosphere. Soon, a huge swirling blue & black vortex in reality opened up in the Forerunner ship's path.

"We're jumping into slipspace!" Cortana said. "Get below deck!"

"No time" the Chief replied.

He activated his thrusters and leapt up, taking cover behind & beneath one of the Lich's fins, and Teana & Shepard followed. The craft's shields – upgraded by the Didact to safely withstand the rigors of slipstream space that would've torn it asunder beforehand – sprang up around it, the human trio safely within them. The swarm of dropships and Liches entered the slipspace portal, followed by the massive bulk of the _Mantle's Approach_. Soon, the rift closed, and the system was quiet again.

**-**_**CHAPTER END**_**-**

Next Time: The battle at Ivanoff Station


	7. Composer

**My 2014 Christmas Haul: **A PlayStation 3 (500GB, comes with a free copy of _Destiny_), _Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Collection_ (PS3), _KH 2.5 Collection_ (PS3), _Pokémon Omega Ruby _(3DS), _Kirby Triple Deluxe _(3DS), three shirts, and some snacks. Oh, and a DDOS attack on Microsoft & Sony's servers that has rendered me (and millions of other people) unable to actually enjoy my new KH games or my still-in-progress _Master Chief Collection_ playthrough.

**SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS**

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES

**-**_**CHAPTER START**_**-**

**Realm H4-L0 – Khaphrae System**

A massive bluish-black rift in reality opened up, disgorging the gigantic Forerunner dreadnought _Mantle's Approach_ and its escort of 'Didact's Hand' Phantoms and Liches. Aboard one of the Liches, a trio of power-armored humans was along for the ride, tucked in behind the largest 'fin' on the craft's roof. They looked up as the pitch-blackness of slipspace was replaced by the star-filled 'normal' realm; the view on one side was dominated by a terrestrial planet with a massive, glowing 'hole' in its side with the mantle exposed, as well as a dense asteroid field that filled the area – likely the blasted-off pieces of the wounded planet. As they peeked out from cover, they saw something else that dominated their attention as the Covenant craft moved on.

"A Halo…" the Master Chief murmured.

"Installation Zero-Three" Cortana clarified. "It's where _Infinity_ found the coordinates for Requiem."

"Then why are we going past it?" Teana asked.

"Because the Composer's not on the ring…"

Ahead, amongst the asteroids orbiting the dead world and the Halo, a human-made artificial structure was built into a larger piece of rock – Ivanoff Station.

"Well then," Commander Shepard said, "let's get to work; that station's not gonna save itself…"

-_Break_-

A blast from Mirage Shotgun signaled the death of the last Elite aboard the Lich. Stepping around numerous Covenant bodies, the trio walked up to the Lich's control panel in the cockpit. The Master Chief pulled Cortana out of his helmet and slotted her in.

"This is Systems Alliance Commander Shepard to UNSC Ivanoff Station; I have UNSC Master Chief Spartan-117 and Gamma-1 with me. Do you read us?"

"_Yes, I read you_" a woman's voice – slightly out of breath – responded. "_This is Dr. Sandy Tillson; we're under attack!_"

"They're after a Forerunner artifact you took from the Halo ring" the Master Chief said.

"_How do you know about that?_"

"Doctor, I need you to protect that artifact until we arrive! Send whatever-"

Suddenly, the Lich shuddered. The controls sparked and faded out, and the craft began to drift.

"What just happened?" the Chief asked.

"Damn it!" Cortana cursed. "Something just took out the Lich's power supply! Judging by the readings, we must've missed a Jackal when we were purging this ship, because it looks like a focused EMP burst, like from a plasma pistol's overcharge shot, did it."

"Can you get things back up and running?" Shepard asked, looking worryingly at the rapidly-approaching station.

"Not in time to avoid a crash! All hands, brace for impact! Hang on to something!"

The trio braced themselves, locking their armor for extra protection. After a couple seconds, there was a horrendous bang-crunch, and things went dark.

-_Break_-

"Ow…" Teana said flatly as she got up. "Everyone alright?"

"Bioscans show all three of you are still in one piece," Cortana replied from within the Chief's helmet as he and Shepard got to their feet, "which is surprising, considering it seems we were thrown clear out of the Lich on impact."

The Master Chief keyed his comm. "Dr. Tillson, are you there?"

"_Oh, thank God. When your signal cut out, I-_"

"Doctor, listen to me. You have to evacuate the station."

"_We've been trying! The Covenant have already taken over the landing bays!_"

"Send us your coordinates. We'll see what we can do about clearing an evac route on our way to you."

Approaching the exit from the wrecked landing bay they'd 'landed' in, they opened the door in time to see a security guard go down after taking three Needler spikes to the neck… and then, a half-second later, the projectile from the M363 'Sticky Detonator' he'd fired as he collapsed went off, killing the three Jackals he'd been trading fire with. The Master Chief, having lost his railgun in the crash, grabbed the Sticky Detonator and a few rounds from the dead guard, and the trio pressed on.

They opened the next door, into a hangar, just in time to see a Jackal take a running leap at a security guard, intending to pounce and rip the man's throat out. Shepard used his Biotics to catch the Kig-Yar mid-jump, and then slammed the alien into the ground with bone-shattering force. On the right, multiple Grunts and Jackals had already spotted the hero trio and were opening fire. As shots pounded their shields, Teana used a Mirage Pistol to take out most of the Grunts on the left, while the Chief used his DMR to kill a pair of Jackal Marksman high on the right. Shepard tossed out a Shockwave that sent more Grunts and Jackals flying, and used his N7 Eagle to finish off the survivors.

Passing through beneath the platform ahead, they almost-literally ran into a blue-armored Elite inside. The Chief punched the alien so hard it took out the shields, and then Shepard stabbed the Elite in the chest with his Omniblade. In the next room, another Elite led a squad of Grunts, while two Jackal Marksmen with T-52 Carbines were on a higher catwalk. While the Chief took out the Jackals, Teana switched to dual Mirage Plasma-Bolt guns, hosing the Elite down with bright blue plasma fire that wore down its shields and burned through its armor and chest. Shepard handled the Grunts, his N7 Hurricane SMG making short work of the squat aliens. Moving on through a hallway, picking up a few more Sticky-Detonator rounds along the way, they entered a hallway that opened up on the side into the hangar bay.

"What can we do to keep the Covenant out?" the Master Chief asked Cortana.

"The Harbormaster controls can erect a barricade over the bay," the AI replied, "but we'll have to locate them."

They moved into the hangar as a Phantom flew away after dropping off a squad of Grunts and Jackals. The Master Chief sprinted over to a mounted machinegun turret on a raised platform on the right-hand side overlooking the hangar, using it to cut down most of the nearby hostiles, while Shepard sniped a pair of Elites farther down the hangar. Soon another Phantom flew in, dropping off a pack of Grunts & Jackals led by two Elites. A frag grenade from Teana took out most of the small-fry, with Shepard's pistol taking care of the rest, while the MG turret's high-caliber rounds punched through the two Elites' shields and bodies.

After fending off two more Phantoms' worth of troops, the Chief took advantage of a lull in the action to hurry over to the harbormaster controls near the outside entrance to the hangar. The transparent energy field that kept oxygen in became a near-opaque bright blue, set to prevent any further Phantoms from entering.

"Dr. Tillson," Cortana said, "Bay 7 is secure and we're moving to your position now?"

"_Really? Oh, that's incredible!_"

Following a NavPoint placed by Cortana, the trio hurried toward a door on the right and a level down from where they entered. It opened to reveal a trio of Jackals, and Shepard hit them with a close-range Biotic Throw that put them down for the count. An Elite came charging out next, but it was right into a point-blank blast from Mirage Shotgun. In the next room, a pack of Grunts & Jackals was exchanging fire with a team of security guards; the Covenant forces had a plasma turret set up, the Grunt manning it using it to burn a guard's face off. Shepard hit the Grunt with a Biotic Pull, yanking it into the air for the Chief to shoot down. A grenade from Teana was next, killing most of the Jackals and some of the Grunts. The remaining Covenant soldiers panicked, and were quickly cut down by the three heroes and the rallying guards.

Moving up the steps, they came to an opening in the floor over the lower level around 10 feet below, occupied by an Elite and a few Grunts. The Elite fired its Storm Rifle up at them, forcing the Master Chief to move back as his shields flared, and Shepard threw/dropped in a plasma grenade that stuck to the Sangheili extremist, vaporizing its upper torso and also killing a few Grunts who were too close. Teana dropped in, landing feet-first on a Grunt with enough force to break the stout alien's neck, and then with lightning-quick movements she used her Mirage Pistols to put .45-cal SAP-HE rounds into the remaining Grunts' heads.

Moving on, up a ramp and through a door, they entered the bottom level of a large staircase area. Four Grunts were coming down the stairs, but two ONI security guards were ready, using their assault rifles to mow the aliens down. As the trio headed upstairs, an orange pane of light swept through the area.

"The Didact doesn't know where the Composer is," Cortana said, "just that it's on the station."

The ONI security guards followed the Chief, Shepard, & Teana up to the next area, the floor overlooking the hangar bay, where a pair of red-armored Elites with T-50 Concussion Rifles led a group of Needler-wielding Grunts. Shepard used an Overload to strip one Elite's shields, letting the two guards focus assault rifle fire to bring it down. The other Elite roared and fired its weapon, two blasts of concussive plasma knocking Shepard off his feet and draining his shields nearly to zero. The Master Chief fired his sticky detonator, the adhesive explosive sticking to the Sangheili terrorist's upper chest, and then he pulled the trigger again and the charge detonated, blowing the Elite's chest open. The Grunts panicked and scattered, easy pickings for Mirage Assault-Rifle and the guards' MA5Ds.

As the guards stayed to secure the hangar, the hero trio moved through a nearby door and into a neighboring hallway. As they hurried down it, another scanning plane moved through the station. At the far end of the hallway, they moved through another door into a laboratory, where a few guards and scientists with SMGs and pistols were futilely attempting to harm a Hunter pair. The Master Chief moved in, distracting one of the Hunters when it had been about to blow a guard to bits. He rolled under a swing of the monster's shield, and fired a Sticky Detonator shot at the exposed portion of the Hunter's lower back. It stuck into place, and the Chief backpedaled to get some distance before pulling the trigger; the resulting detonation nearly tore the Hunter in half, and it collapsed dead.

The other Hunter roared in rage, firing two blasts from its fuel-rod arm cannon in rapid succession; both of them narrowly missed the Spartan-II, his shields draining just from the proximity, and one blasted a hole in the steel wall while the other blew a scientist into smoking chunks. The beast charged with surprising speed, its armored steps shaking the room, but then a pair of Crossfire Shot bolts struck it right in the 'face'. Briefly dazed, its momentum carried it forward, and the Chief rolled to the side to let the Hunter slam into the wall. Before it could recover, he stuck another shot to its vulnerable spot and detonated it, putting the Hunter down.

"_Spartan, are you all right?-!_" Dr. Tillson radioed. "_It sounds like the end of the world out there!_"

"There was a Hunter pair in the lab, ma'am" the Chief replied. "They didn't go down quietly. We've cleared them out and are coming in now."

The trio came over to the door, and after a few seconds it unlocked, revealing an older woman in a labcoat, her graying blonde hair done up in a tight bun.

"I desperately hope you know why all this is happening" Dr. Tillson said to them as she walked with them toward a console near the window. "Because, to be honest, my objectivity isn't doing me a whole lot of good right now."

"The device you recovered was a Forerunner weapon" the Master Chief told her as she inputted commands to the module's controls. "The commander of that giant ship wants it back."

She stopped, turning to them with a confused expression. "Wants it _back_?"

"He's called the Didact" Teana said. "He's a Forerunner, a former General imprisoned in a stasis chamber by his fellows for crimes against sapient life. Now he's loose, and he's picking up his 'human extermination' campaign where he left off."

"That device you found," Shepard continued, "is called the Composer, and it's his weapon."

"A Forerunner war criminal…" Tillson breathed out as the room/module began to descend. "The device… It can't leave this station!"

"We don't have any choice, doctor" the Chief said.

"It's not a matter of choice! The Composer is over 200 meters in size, and it's anchored to a structure merged with the surrounding rocks, making the whole thing even bigger; it took three months and the biggest starship the UNSC could throw at it just to relocate it here!" The window of the mobile module now showed them a view of the massive artifact outside. "Unless you three are a _lot_ stronger than you look, that thing's not going anywhere!"

The trio looked to each other for a few seconds. "Can you give Cortana access to the station's supply manifests?" the Chief asked Tillson.

"What for?" she asked as she did so.

"If we can't move the Composer," Shepard said, "we have to make sure the Didact can't get his hands on it either."

Tillson stopped, looking at them with horrified realization. "Oh wait… We have _so much_ work invested here."

"Inventory lists seven excavation-grade Havok mines" Cortana reported. "Just one of those would turn this base into a piñata."

"I'm sorry, Doctor" John-117 said. "Keep routing your people to the evac centers. Once we take care of the Composer, you won't have much time."

Tillson hesitated, looking down in deep thought. After several seconds, she gave a shaky nod.

"I'll, uh… make sure the nukes are primed so you can detonate them remotely" she said lowly. "Maybe next time you rescue us… you can give us more time to pack?"

The Chief nodded. "Next time."

As the module arrived at the bottom, the hero trio exited into a hallway on a lower part of the station. Heading through a doorway in front of them, they reached the large, open cavern containing the Composer. The station's security guards were all over the place, organizing defenses, and at least two Mantises were moving around. As they moved across the area, the whole station shook a little, accompanied by a low 'boom'.

"Doc, what was that?" Teana asked.

"_The Covenant just… just shot down the first lifeboat_" Tillson replied.

"The station should be equipped with outer turrets" Cortana said. "If we can reactivate them, I can program the station's defenses to provide cover for the evacuation."

"_Okay. Okay, I'll send you the coordinates._"

A NavPoint appeared on the trio's HUDs. They entered a structure on the far side of the area, passing into a hallway with a locked door nearby. A security guard opened the door to let them through, sealing it behind them. As they ascended a short ramp into a neighboring hallway, another scanning pulse ran through.

'_You impress me, humans. Your singular valor will be preserved and studied, once your Composition has been completed._'

In the hall, a pair of Jackals and a Grunt were snatched up by Shepard's Singularity and then gunned down by Teana's Assault Rifle-form Device. In the next hallway at the other end, an Elite and two Grunts were positioned at the far end with a plasma turret. Shepard hit the gun with a Sabotage attack, putting it out of commission, and then the Chief fired a Sticky Detonator shot. The Elite dodged it, but it hit a Grunt instead, and the Chief triggered the detonation before the Elite could get away from the stuck Grunt, de-shielding and wounding the Elite for Shepard's pistol to finish off. The lone remaining Grunt went down to a few rounds from Mirage Rifle.

At the end of the hallway, they entered a large room with three airlocks, occupied by another Elite and a few Grunts. An Overload and pistol headshot from Shepard dealt with the hostile Sangheili, and the Chief's DMR put down the Grunts. One of the airlocks began to cycle as a squad of Covenant came in from outside, but Teana hurried over to the airlock controls and opened the outer door, sucking the Covenant out. A few more squads met similar fates before the rest got the hint and stopped trying, and the team moved on.

They moved through a door, down a catwalk, and into another hallway, where some scientists and security guards were being cornered by an Elite, a Jackal, and three Grunts. The Chief threw a frag grenade that killed the Jackal and a Grunt and de-shielded the Elite, and Shepard's SMG cut the saurian alien down, while Teana used Mirage Rifle to deal with the other two Grunts.

"The Covenant's just wasted one of the security teams!" a scientist said. "What chance do a bunch of archeologists have?"

"Find Doctor Tillson" Shepard told them. "She'll get you to the evac area."

The trio moved on, gunning down a few Grunts as they hurried up a ramp.

"The battlenet's directing all troops to our position!" Cortana reported as they arrived in another airlock area.

Squads of Covenant came pouring in through the three airlocks. Shepard sent out a Combat Drone, the glowing construct using its electro-blaster and its Incinerate rockets to start taking out Grunts & Jackals and weakening Elites. Teana fired a few 40mm grenades from Mirage Rifle's underslung launcher, thinning the herd further, while the Chief used his DMR to finish off Elites as well as a couple Grunts carrying FRGs. After about two minutes of hectic fighting, the enemies stopped coming.

They hurried up to the upper level of the room and through a door. As they passed through the next hallway, another scanning pulse raced through. At the other end, they entered an armored/windowed balcony module overlooking the station's exterior; below, guards and Covenant were engaged in battle. The module was not empty; a pair of Elite Zealots was in, and they had just spotted the human trio. One drew a pair of plasma rifles, opening fire, while the second pulled out a plasma sword and rushed them. Shepard hit the sword-wielder with an Overload to drain its shields, and then a Warp to make the Elite stop its charge, staggering as the glowing blue energy tore at its body. A blast from Mirage Shotgun finished the job. Meanwhile, the Master Chief managed to land a sticky-detonator shot on the other Zealot, detonating it to put the alien down.

With the path clear, the Master Chief hurried to the control console and slotted Cortana in. After a few seconds of work, the station's mass-driver cannons came online, opening fire on the Phantoms and Liches attacking the station.

"Tillson, the guns should be online now" Shepard reported.

"_I hear them. We'll broadcast the final evac orders._"

"And the nuke?" the Chief asked.

"_We're rigging it now. Meet us back on the upper platform and we'll help you get it to the artifact._"

The Chief retrieved Cortana's chip, and the trio moved through a door on the other side of the room, entering a cramped passageway. Moving down an incline, they came up behind a few Grunts and a Jackal, and gunned them down before they could react. At the other end, they came out into another room full of Covenant forces, and this time an Elite spotted them and warned the others. The Elite fell back into a neighboring hallway as the Grunts surged forward, but a Biotic Shockwave from Shepard quickly dealt with the little aliens. The hallway had three Elites and five Grunts in it; the Master Chief used his last two sticky-detonator rounds to kill an Elite and three Grunts, and a Singularity from Shepard snatched up the remaining Grunts and the second Elite, with a following Warp triggering a Biotic detonation that tore them apart and knocked the last Elite back, stunning and de-shielding it so that a burst of Mirage Rifle fire finished it off.

They hurried down the hallway, passing through two doors, and finally arrived in a room with a view of the Composer cavern. Several Phantoms could be seen dropping off more Covenant soldiers near the device, and multiple Grunts were cheering around disabled Mantises; there were no humans visible in the cavern. Then, the orange scanning pane from the Didact's ship swept through the area, and as it passed over the Composer it stopped, holding position halfway 'through' it.

"Damn it" Shepard called up his comm. "Dr. Tillson, the Composer's location has been compromised! You've gotta get that nuke down here!"

"_It's not ready yet!_"

"Ready or not, we need it _now_!"

The trio hurried outside while the Covenant were distracted, getting aboard the three Mantises in the area. The Grunts startled as they heard the walkers start up, and then the Mantises' chainguns began ripping the gathered Covenant apart before they could even raise their weapons. A few Grunts on the higher rocks surrounding the Composer fired fuel-rod guns, but the three walkers sidestepped the glowing green projectiles and returned fire, heavy-caliber rounds tearing the FRG-wielders apart.

A flight of Phantoms entered the cavern, dropping off Elite-led squads and a few Ghosts. Teana used her Mantis' missiles to blow the plasma turrets off the enemy dropships, preventing them from joining the fray, while the Chief brought his Mantis' foot down on a Grunt pack, wiping them out, and Shepard's Mantis focused MG fire on a Ghost, wrecking the hover-speeder. The Elites' plasma fire was absorbed by the three walkers' shields, while the aliens' own shields folded quickly under the heavy machinegun fire.

Another wave of Phantoms entered the cavern, one of them carrying a Wraith; the three Mantises focused missile fire on that one, destroying the hover-tank before it could be deployed and also heavily damaging the Phantom, which bugged out without dropping any troops off. A shot from a fuel-rod gun fired by an Elite slammed into Shepard's Mantis, dropping the shields to around 8%, and in response a few missiles from the Chief's Mantis blew the Elite apart.

A squadron of Banshees entered the cavern, the closer ones already firing their weapons. The Mantises moved around to dodge, avoiding the few fuel-rod cannon shots while their shields withstood the plasma-cannon shots they couldn't avoid. The three mechs returned fire, missiles and heavy machinegun fire being sent up. One Banshee tried to barrel-roll to dodge an incoming missile, but it slammed into the side of another Banshee in the process, damaging both and ensuring that neither could dodge the warhead that blew them both out of the sky. The other two Banshees were rapidly accruing damage from the Mantises' heavy machineguns, and it wasn't long before it was too much for them, sending them both crashing down in flames.

Another wave of Phantoms with Banshee support was next, the former dropping off troops with heavy weapons and a couple of Ghosts. Shepard and Teana worked on shooting down the Banshees and blowing the turrets off Phantoms, while the Chief's Mantis hunted down Covenant troops carrying heavy weapons, disposing of them before they could do any serious damage. A Ghost came charging at his Mantis from behind, aiming to knock the walker's legs out from under it, but a missile from Shepard's Mantis struck the speeding Ghost in the side, bringing its charge to a messy halt.

"Dr. Tillson, where's the warhead?" the Chief asked as the Mantises, having cleared the skies, worked on finishing off the ground troops. "…Dr. Tillson?"

"Head back to the elevator platform" Cortana said. "I'll keep trying to raise her."

With the area clear, the three Mantises parked over by the base structure. The Master Chief, Commander Shepard, and Teana disembarked, hurrying through the doors and a short hallway into the mobile module. The Chief hit the controls, and the module began to rise up along the exterior wall, the window giving them a view of the cavern and the Composer.

"Alert!" Cortana suddenly announced. "Immense Casimir wave building outside the atrium!"

Suddenly, the roof of the cavern broke off, exposing the entire atrium to space. One of the cranes in the area lost control and smashed into the elevator's window; the module screeched to a halt, as the trio were nearly thrown off their feet. The Didact's flagship was in plain view, and it fired a bright orange light into the atrium. The powerful tractor beam grabbed hold of the Composer, which levitated up from the Forerunner structure holding it, and up out of the station.

"…Cortana," the Chief said, "see if you can raise Tillson. And get me a status on the rest of the station."

"The station's 86% evacuated" the AI replied. "Plenty of damage all over, but none of it bad enough to compromise the structural integrity of the entire base other than the big-ass skylight the Didact just made. I can't raise Tillson on the comm., but I've got her biosigns on 350-Level, B-Deck. Starting us up…"

As the damaged elevator-module resumed its descent, the Master Chief looked up as the _Mantle's Approach_ drifted away, the Composer being drawn toward the circular orange portal on the ship's front. They were running out of time, fast. As the elevator module reached the top, the trio hurried out into the level. Scientists were running about, trying to save data.

"The Didact's taken the Composer!" Shepard said to Dr. Tillson as the trio passed her, the Chief pulling Cortana out and slotting her into the command console.

"Taken?" the woman asked. "Taken how?" 

"Big tractor beam from his ship" Teana replied. "And he tore a huge chunk out of the atrium ceiling first."

"Cortana, tap the flight deck" the Master Chief ordered. "Find us something that can carry a payload."

"Wait…" Tillson and her colleagues looked out the window at the Didact's ship. "Something's happening…"

The circular portal on the front of the _Mantle's Approach_ had closed until just the tip of the Composer was sticking out. A bright orange point of light had formed, and was growing brighter.

"My God…" Shepard breathed, his expression one of horror. "He's going to fire that thing at us!"

"Cortana, can you access the station's defense systems?"

"Negative! They're not responding; the Didact or his Covenant fried the systems! Chief… I can't stop it!"

Before anyone could try anything else, a brilliant orange beam of light struck the station, fired from the Composer. The scientists all staggered and convulsed from the blow, their flesh already glowing orange and beginning to break apart. Dr. Tillson began to scream as her flesh was broken down into orange flakes of data, followed a split-second later by her exposed musculature and other soft tissues, until finally her skeleton broke apart and disintegrated before it could hit the ground as her clothing was flash-vaporized by the incredible heat from the sudden release of energy and phase-shifting of matter, just like everyone else around her. The Chief, Shepard, and Teana collapsed to the floor unconscious, their armor's shields flaring.

-_Break_-

At some point later, John-117 regained consciousness. Letting out a soft grown, he got to his hands & knees and then to his feet. Other than him, the only other occupants were Shepard & Teana, both now awakening, and Cortana, her avatar sitting in a curled-up position. All around them were piles of softly-smoking ash – all the remained of Dr. Sandra Tillson and the other scientists.

"I guess…" Teana groaned out as Shepard pulled her to her feet, "the Librarian's genetic alteration worked…"

"Yeah…" Shepard replied solemnly. "We're all that's left…"

"I was monitoring the data pulse…" Cortana spoke, her tone distraught, haunted, and shaken as her avatar shivered and hugged herself. "I… I could _hear_ them… what was _left_ of them…"

"So what now?" Lanstar asked.

Cortana's avatar took a deep breath, and then called up a holo-terminal. "I'm spinning up two Broadswords in Hanger C-11, and loading one with a HAVOK."

"…It's not over" the Master Chief spoke. "Not yet."

"Not yet…" Cortana whispered in reply, as Shepard and Teana nodded. The beginning of the end had passed; now, all that remained was to track the Didact down, and finish what had been started over 100,000 years ago…

**-**_**CHAPTER END**_**-**

Next Time: The battle for (Realm H4-L0's) Earth


	8. Midnight

**SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS**

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES

**-**_**CHAPTER START**_**-**

**Realm H4-L0 – Khaphrae System – Ivanoff Station**

In the hangar bay, two F41 Broadsword fighters were moved by overhead conveyor belts, stopping once they reached the open hangar doors. A floor panel opened beneath one of the fighters, and a gravity lift floated a missile armed with a HAVOK warhead up to the fighter's underside, where clamps latched onto it. The Broadswords' engines came online, and the overhead conveyors released them, letting them rocket out through the atmosphere-containing energy field and into space, leaving the dead and silent Ivanoff Station behind.

The titanic _Mantle's Approach_ soared through space, not taking heed of the two tiny human space-fighters trailing it. In the lead fighter, the Master Chief was at the controls with Cortana in his helmet providing assistance, while the second fighter had Commander Shepard at the helm with Teana as passenger/copilot behind him. Ahead, as they closed on the Forerunner dreadnought, a slipspace portal opened in front of it.

"He's on the move again" the Master Chief said.

"Broadsword shields aren't rated for slipspace!" Cortana warned.

"No, but the Didact's are."

The two craft boosted forward, approaching the Didact's ship and flying 'up' its rear side. They nestled near the top, side by side, as the vessel's shields came online with the two Broadswords safely inside. The _Mantle's Approach_ then entered the dark realm of slipstream space, carrying its two hitchhikers with it.

-_Break_-

"Broadswords' hull integrity is stable" Cortana reported as the two fighters flew 'slowly' down an enormous chasm on the dreadnought's hull. "We'll be safe as long as we stay below the Didact's shields."

"Where's the Composer?" the Master Chief asked.

"Close. I should be able to guide us to it."

'_You have not been Composed?_' the Didact's telepathic voice, shocked and angry, echoed as the Broadswords moved down the trench. '_Such inoculation should not have been possible!_'

"Locking on to Didact's transmission" Cross Mirage stated.

"He's at the Composer" Cortana said, looking at the data from her magically-enabled counterpart. "We can take them both out at once!"

Advancing into another section of the trench, they encountered a few Forerunner anti-air guns. The Broadswords' shields protected them as the two craft moved to the sides to dodge fire as best they could, and fire from their 35mm autocannons made short work of the lightly armored, hard-light constructed turrets. Moving through a more enclosed area, they had to sway to the right as the wall ahead moved out from the left. Past that, another moving wall forced them to the left, and then a third coming down from the top made them dive. More AA turrets were in their way between mobile walls, and the Broadswords' guns took them out. They flew through a wide tunnel that curved to the left, and after several peaceful seconds they re-emerged into the trench, blasting a few more guns waiting for them.

"Cherenkov radiation fluctuating!" Cortana reported. "We're coming out of slipspace!"

There was a loud crackle, and with a flash of light the pitch-black 'sky' overhead gave way to normal space; the light of Sol shone down into the trench, and Earth was visible up ahead, guarded by orbital Super-MAC defense platforms and a sizable fleet of UNSC, Sangheili Alliance, and TSAB ships engaged in battle with elements from Mdama's fleet.

"_At current velocity, hostile flagship will achieve Earth orbit in approximately four minutes._"

"_Roger. Battlegroup Dakota, close on the Forerunner vessel._"

"Looks like _Infinity_ passed the warning on after all" Shepard said.

-_Break_-

The Didact was… annoyed, to put it lightly, as he gazed out at the fleet facing his, as well as at the data he was pulling from them. Calling up a transmission back to Requiem, he waited until Jul Mdama's face appeared on the holo-screen.

"Mdama…" he said in a low, deceptively calm tone. "Why did you not inform me that the bulk of your species are _allied_ with the humans, and that _your_ forces represented a separatist faction branded as terrorist extremists by them, not even considered enough of a threat to recognize as a legitimate power?"

"_Because…_" Jul looked rather nervous. "_You… did not ask, my lord?_"

The Didact let out an exasperated sigh, resting his face in his six-fingered hand.

"They have one of your people's ships, sir" Eve T'Lesh called the Didact's attention, pointing to the _Starshot_ on the tactical display.

The Ur-Didact glared at the image. "Damn you, First-Light…" he murmured, cursing his ex-wife's shortened name. "An _M_-class destroyer cannot hope to cause serious harm to this vessel before we reach our destination. But all the same, the thought of the humans having access to _more_ of my people's technology disgusts me. Automated systems, focus some fire on that ship; if it flees, we won't bother pursuing right now, but do try to destroy it if possible. Mdama, you and I are going to have a little talk when I get back about holding back information that I just might actually _want_ to know…"

-_Break_-

"Sierra-117 to UNSC _Infinity_" the Chief sent out as his and Shepard & Teana's Broadswords dodged spires and blasted AA guns. "Captain del-Rio, do you read?"

"_Chief, it's Lasky! Is that you guys?-!_"

"Affirmative, sir. Where's the Captain?"

"_FLEETCOM didn't take too kindly to his trying to arrest you three and then abandoning you on Requiem. They stripped him of command, promoted me to Captain, and gave me the _Infinity_._"

"The Didact's got the Composer. We're in two Broadswords with a HAVOK-grade payload, on approach to deliver it."

"_Let's see if we can grease the wheels for you. All ships, prepare to engage the flagship!_"

"_This is Shipmaster Zhal Arum to Command. The Didact's warship seems to be expressly targeting our vessel!_"

"_He's probably not happy to see a Forerunner ship turned against him_" Fleet-Admiral Hood replied. "_Get the _Starshot_ out of here, Arum! Jump to Saturn's orbit until further notice; take out Mdama's recon ships that he __thinks__ we don't know are there._"

"_Understood._"

The two Broadswords continued their flight down the trench, dodging mobile walls and destroying AA guns. The main path snapped shut, but a narrower one was available beneath, and the fighter pair dove and passed through it. Barricades tried to close ahead of them, but the Broadswords' missiles blew them down.

"_Chief,_" Lasky radioed, "_the battlegroup's moving forward to engage, but at the rate the Didact's ship is advancing, he'll reach the wire in two minutes._"

"Lasky," Shepard replied, "divert all your ships to the Composer."

"_Copy that._"

"_Orbital Defense Command, this is FLEETCOM. Hostile flagship inbound; proceed to Condition Red._"

The next large, curving tunnel was filled with AA guns, forcing the Broadswords to make evasive maneuvers as they rocketed through. Once that was past, they climbed and dove to avoid mobile horizontal bars of golden energy, and shot down a long, straight corridor with yet more AA guns, scrapping them as they passed.

"_This is Earth Orbital Defense! MAC defenses ineffective against enemy vessel; it's still approaching!_"

Reaching another series of moving gates, the Broadswords banked and dove to go around, firing at AA guns as they went. Finally, they boosted into and through a long tunnel that got progressively narrower. At the other end, they emerged into a wide-open circular area, with four starship-grade particle cannons along the outer edge. A tunnel was at the center, presumably leading down into the ship. In the distance, the _Infinity_ and several other ships could be seen approaching, weapons hot. Suddenly, thick plates of armor converged shut over the hole, sealing it.

"_Commander!_"

"Joker?" Shepard said. "Is that you?"

"_Affirmative; _Normandy II _is on station! Once we heard what was coming, we hurried over here._"

"The Didact just sealed our entrance to the Composer!"

"_We can't get too close with those particle cannons online. Take out those big-ass guns guarding the area and we'll make a hole for you!_"

The Master Chief's Broadsword destroyed a bright-orange 'beacon' at the center of the area, and in response the laser grids protecting the four heavy particle cannons' power cores went offline. The two Broadswords split up, focusing their autocannons and missiles on the AA guns surrounding the particle cannons and then firing shots at the exposed power cores. In less than two minutes, all four particle cannons were offline.

"_Normandy_, you're clear" the Chief radioed.

"_Roger that_" Joker replied. "_Make way, you guys – Thanix shot coming in!_"

The Systems Alliance stealth-attack frigate swooped in, pointing toward the circular depression on the 'front' of the _Mantle's Approach_. The _N2_'s relativistic molten-metal cannon unfolded from its underside, and fired a brilliant bluish-white 'beam' that impacted the metal shield just off-center, burning/blowing a neat hole into it.

"Clean hit" the Chief said. "We're proceeding to insertion."

"_Acknowledged_" Capt. Lasky replied. "_We'll be on station if you need us. Be sure to give the Didact our regards._"

The two Broadswords dove nose-first into the new opening, flying deeper into the dreadnought. However, the walls began to shift and close in their path, forcing them to take increasingly desperate and sudden evasive maneuvers. They hit their boosters as they shot through a narrow tunnel that was getting narrower by the second.

"I don't think this is going to end_ well!-!_" Cortana screamed.

*CRUNCH*

-_Break_-

The Master Chief, Shepard, and Teana disembarked from their significantly damaged Broadswords, having barely squeezed through the final portion; the collapsing tunnel had damaged the two crafts' rear sections, forcing them to be put down for a hard landing, skidding to a stop over a few hundred meters (squishing a patrolling Crawler pack in the process; the leg of one was half-hanging out of the atmospheric engine intake of Shepard's fighter). They walked over to the Chief's fighter, and the Spartan-II carefully removed the HAVOK warhead from the underslung missile, magnetically attaching it to his suit's lower back.

"Now what?" Cortana asked.

"Plan B" he replied. "We'll have to deploy the warhead manually. How and where?"

"The Composer's built tough; the best bet to ensure its destruction would be to set the HAVOK off within 500 meters of the device, if not closer. Now we just have to _find_ the damn thing…"

Passing through a door, they moved up an incline and into a large, wide open hallway with two Promethean Watchers straight ahead. Shepard used an Overload to destroy one, but the other one further back managed to warp in a heavy beam turret before fire from the Chief's BR85 destroyed it. The turret's orange beam fired, forcing the trio into cover. Shepard hit it with a Warp, damaging it, and then a 40mm grenade from Mirage Rifle finished it off. They took a left at the fork ahead, swatting two more Watchers and passing into another section.

'_Where reason does not stop you,_' the Didact's voice echoed telepathically as a standard Knight with a Lightrifle and a Battlewagon-type with a Scattershot warped in, '_perhaps force will at least delay you._'

Shepard de-shielded the Knight Battlewagon with Overload, and then a few bursts from the Chief's battle rifle took it down, while at the same time Teana unloaded on the other Knight with Mirage Assault-Rifle on full auto, a few seconds of sustained fire wearing through its shields and bringing it down. The next room had a pair of Watchers and a Crawler pack, quickly disposed of by a frag grenade and some assault-rifle fire, and next was a trio of Knights; a Biotic combo-detonation destroyed a Lancer-type, while the two standard Knights were dealt with by a plasma grenade and a Crossfire Shot strike. They passed through a nearby door, riding a gravity lift down into a hallway.

"I'm detecting an energy signature up ahead" Cortana said. "I think it's a transit system like on Requiem. Find a way to access it; I'll try to route us to the Composer."

At the end of the hallway, they came out onto a platform overlooking a large chasm. The Chief pulled Cortana out of his helmet and slotted her into a nearby access terminal.

'_Is this the secret you've kept from me?_' the Didact's voice echoed. '_This… evolved Ancilla?_"

"He knows I'm in the system! Hurry, go!"

A slipspace portal opened, and the trio rushed through, emerging into a hallway populated by a Crawler pack. A couple frag grenades destroyed most of them, with Shepard's pistol dealing with the rest. Another portal opened at the far end, and it whisked the trio into a multi-leveled room with at least five different portal frames.

"Damn it!" Cortana said. "The Didact's scrambling the systems around! I can barely control where the network sends you guys, and sending you straight to the Composer is out of the question!"

A trio of Knights and two Watchers approached from ahead, their shots pushing the human group into cover. Shepard took out the Watchers with an Overload and a Warp, while the Chief and Teana focused burst-fire to take out the Knight wielding a Scattershot before it could get close. Teana then switched Mirage to Shotgun Mode and charged the Knight wielding a Suppressor, letting her shields absorb the fire; one shotgun blast drained the Knight's shields and badly damaged it, and a second finished it off. The Chief ran at the final Knight while firing his assault rifle, and the Knight's shields gave way just as the Spartan-II got in close, lashing out with a super-strength punch that proved lethal to the construct.

They hurried across the chamber and into another portal. They found themselves in a fairly small room, with a multitude of human, Covenant, and Promethean weapons. The Master Chief grabbed an Incineration Cannon, Commander Shepard picked out a Scattershot, and Teana took the lone Jiralhanae Gravity Hammer. The next portal sent them back into the previous room, and a WayPoint on their HUDs highlighted a portal frame on the far side of the area. Several Crawlers and four Knights had taken up residence in her, and one of the Knights was directly in front of them, its back turned to them. Shepard snuck up right behind it, and then blasted it point-blank with his Scattershot, destroying it.

The other Prometheans heard the noise; a Knight and a few Crawlers came running to investigate, while the rest held position and waited for the humans to come to them. As a Knight rushed forward with its blade pulled back to strike, and a Crawler Alpha joined it with claws out, Teana stepped forward and swung her gravity hammer, crushing both. The other Crawlers tried to fall back, but Shepard's SMG and the Chief's assault rifle cut them down. Moving down to the lower level that contained the highlighted portal frame, the Chief threw a pulse grenade that took out two Crawlers and de-shielded a Knight, with a follow-up BR shot to the head taking out the latter. The other two Knights, one of them wielding a Binary Rifle, prepared to fire, but Shepard froze one with a Biotic Stasis attack while Teana's bright orange Bind spell grabbed hold of the other. The Master Chief lunged for the closer one, ripping its right arm off just as it began breaking free of the Binds, and plunged the hard-light blade through its upper chest. As that Knight dissolved away, Shepard rushed to the Stasis-ed Knight and blasted it with his Scattershot.

With the room cleared, they passed through the now-active portal. They emerged into another hallway, leading up to the base of a decorative tower with a few barricades and weapons racks, as well as a half-dozen Crawlers and a Knight.

"The Didact's cloaking the Composer from me" Cortana reported.

The Chief fired a blast from his Incineration Cannon, taking out the Knight and Crawlers with one shot. At the far end of this passage, there was a short drop on the left that led do a bridge extending out to a portal frame. Cortana appeared atop a command pedestal nearby, as Crawlers began charging down the bridge toward the group.

"Hold them off while I locate the Composer!" she told them.

The trio got ready, taking position amongst and behind the impromptu barricades. Crawlers began leaping up from the bridge level below, only to fall to shots from Shepard's N7 Eagle, the Chief's MA5D, and Teana's twin pistol-form Device. But they kept coming, a few Alphas joining the assault, and the trio was forced to give a little ground. Suddenly a few heavy beam turrets warped in, and their energy beams – blue instead of orange – opened fire on the approaching Crawler horde, culling the quadrupedal droids' numbers. For the next few minutes, with the help of the turrets they held off multiple waves of Crawlers, some from the bridge area on the right and others from the way they came in.

"Got it!" Cortana announced. "I've locked the Didact out of the system, but I don't know for how long! Opening the portal on the far side of the bridge; the Composer's on the other side!"

The Master Chief pulled her out and returned her into his helmet, and the trio hurried down the bridge, bulldozing through the remaining Crawlers as the auto-turrets covered their advance. In a sprint, they passed through the portal. Upon their exit, a gravity lift was just ahead, and they stepped in. At the top, they were placed on a platform.

"How do we get over there?" the Chief asked.

"Conveyor lift," Cortana replied, "end of the ramp. If we time it right, our momentum should carry us through the low gravity."

The three ran for the lift (a type of device that the Blood-Gulch crew called a 'man cannon'), and were launched forward. After passing through a short tunnel, they emerged into a truly enormous open chamber. At the center was a sizable structure, with the Composer at the very middle. Halfway through their 'flight', the roof opened up, revealing Earth 'above'.

'_And so, you come at last…_'

"Significant slipspace event building under the Composer!" Cortana announced.

"He's powering it up!" Shepard realized.

Landing on the other side, they passed through a short hallway into the central chamber. Four large floating complexes, including the one they were currently on, surrounded the area, and the Composer hovered in the center, pointing upward. A massive swirling orange & black vortex was beneath it all, while the Composer and the Didact were surrounded by a shimmering orange spherical energy field fed by four beams from the structures.

"The Didact's shielded himself into the Composer" Cortana said. "The nuke won't do us any good unless we can disable that barrier! Find me a terminal!"

They hurried forward to the terminal dead ahead, and the Chief slotted Cortana in. Cortana's avatar extended her hands, a visual representation of her digital assault, and after a few seconds of 'struggling' the beam overloaded and cut off. She turned back to the Chief, panting slightly, and he retrieved her.

"One down, three to go" she said.

"That's far enough, humans!"

The trio turned to see Eve T'Lesh warp in, her staff already converted into its twin energy-blades form. After a couple seconds, Teana stepped forward, suffused in an orange glow for a few seconds as she shifted from her Mjolnir armor to her crimson Barrier Jacket.

(MUSIC: _Halo 4 _Unreleased/Unofficial music – "Arrival Midnight Version" [for reference, has some different/extra instrumentation at parts, and a very different ending, from the Official Soundtrack version])

"Chief, Shepard," she said, "go ahead and take care of the other beams." She tossed her gravity hammer to Shepard and then shifted Cross Mirage to dual Longsword Mode. "I've got this."

As the two men nodded and took the nearby gravity lift to the left, Teana stood in Eve's path.

"You people are always interfering…" Eve growled. "You never can make up your minds whether to defend your people or torture them!"

"T'Lesh," Teana replied, "you need to get it through your head that humanity isn't out to get you! Don't let a few rotten apples spoil the whole bushel! It was just bad luck that your First Contact with our race was with a corrupt dictatorship; the rest of us aren't like that, and are disgusted by those who are."

"Tell what lies you want, _demon_! It won't work on me!"

"You call me a demon? That's fine…" She snapped her Mirage Longswords to life. "I'll just have to use my 'hellish' tools to get you to listen to me!"

As the Master Chief and Shepard arrived on the left-side structure, they were immediately set upon by a Crawler pack and a pair of Knights, the latter of which summoned a Watcher. An Overload took the flyer out, and then a Singularity snatched up the Crawlers for a shot from the Chief's Incineration Cannon to wipe out in one blast. Shepard then Biotic-Charged into one Knight and blasted it with his Scattershot, while the Chief shoulder-tackled the other and filled its head full of holes with his assault rifle. They moved up the nearby ramp to the structure's next level, and were almost blindsided by a Knight Battlewagon with a Scattershot. Shepard swung his gravity hammer, destroying the hostile construct, and the duo made their way up a couple short ramps onto a higher platform.

Activating a light-bridge, they crossed to the top level of the main structure, the Chief using a frag grenade to soften up a Knight pair for Shepard's Scattershot to put down. Moving right, they found a quartet of Knights guarding the terminal. The Master Chief fired his Incineration Cannon, destroying two Knights and badly damaging the other two enough that a few shots each from Shepard's N7 Eagle finished them off. Hurrying up to the terminal, the Chief slotted Cortana in, and she did her stuff.

"That's it" she said as another beam cut off, making the spherical orange shield begin to flicker. "It's working!"

Two pairs of orange-hued superheated energy blades clashed in a flurry of movement as Teana and Eve dueled. As she tactically gave a little ground, Teana mused on the irony; months ago, she had been the raging attacker stubbornly convinced of a mistaken motive and nature of her opponent Nanoha, who had defended against her attacks while trying to convince her of the truth. Now, here she was in the opposite position, keeping her cool as she held off the enraged Eve's assault and returned it. As she attacked, Eve conjured and fired several crimson energy bolts, but Teana countered each one with a precise Crossfire Shot bolt, canceling them out.

Eve lashed out with a Force Push that sent Teana hurtling back, but the redhead regained control and landed on her feet a few meters away. Then, Eve extended her palm forward, and dozens of thin red-orange constructs formed all around her, sharp points all aimed at her. A standard Barrier wouldn't be able to stop them, she realized. Eve clenched her fist, and the semi-solid projectiles surged in… and were suddenly deflected by an invisible wave of power that pulsed out from Teana, accompanied by an odd sound. The redhead stood in a shimmering aura of energy, her head bowed slightly so that her bangs obscured her eyes.

"When the Librarian's living memory altered our genetic codes to grant us immunity to the Composer," she told Eve, "she gave me something extra. And now, you get to be the first to see it!"

When Teana looked up, her eyes were no longer the bright red with three concentric black rings and a surrounding black hexagon of her Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. Instead, they were a uniform light-purple irises and sclera, with a ripple-like pattern of rings that spread across the eyeballs. Teana extended her left hand toward Eve, and with the power granted by her brand-new Rinnegan she yanked Eve toward her with a gravitational field, pulling her into a kick that nearly crumpled her armor's chestplate. As Eve growled and got back to her feet, Teana followed and began her attack anew.

As the 'man cannon' sent Shepard and the Chief over to the next floating structure, the Spartan threw a frag grenade ahead, wiping out most of the Crawler pack waiting for them. Upon landing, Shepard used his SMG to mop up the survivors, and the duo then crossed the lower level and started up the ramp. On the upper level, a heavy beam turret stood in their path, along with two Watchers and five Crawler Alphas. While the Chief used his battle rifle to take the Watchers down, Shepard moved back and drew his N7 Valiant. Three shots from the sniper rifle took out the turret, and he then lashed out with a Shockwave attack that scattered and stunned the Crawlers, letting the Chief finish them off. At the far end, Cortana accessed and shut down the overhead beam projector.

"One more to go!" she said.

As she traded shots and swings with Eve, Teana's new eyes allowed her to see the currents and buildups of mana, ki, and Force within and around Eve, allowing her to better react to the incoming attacks. While she fought, she came up with a plan. She extended her telepathic voice out of the ship.

'_Nanoha?_' she sent. '_Are you in any of the Bureau ships out there?_'

'_Yes, I am_' her mentor replied. '_Why? Do you want me to come over and help in the fight?_'

'_Not exactly. Tell me something: all the people in our ships out there… they've all read Eve T'Lesh's case file, right?_'

'_Yeah, why?_'

'_I've got an idea, and I wanna try something. Hang on; I'm gonna bring someone else on the line._'

She extended her telepathy further, reaching across Realms and hoping her target heard her.

'_Hello? Who is this?_'

'_Is this the guy they call King Kai?_'

'_Yep, that's me! …Oh, you're Vegeta's niece! What can I do for you?_'

'_You're monitoring the situation over here, I take it? Can you use your telepathy powers to link me with every person in our fleet here in-system, like when you linked the people of your Realm's Earth with the group fighting Kid Buu?_'

'_It'll take me a bit to set up, but sure. How come?_'

'_Well…_'

"Chief, his ship's in range!" Cortana warned. "Once the barrier's down, we need to get the nuke in there _fast_!"

Reaching the final floating structure, the Chief and Shepard used assault rifle and SMG to mow down the Crawlers and Watcher blocking access to the ramp up. Up on the structure's middle level, they narrowly dodged a shot from a Crawler Snipe clinging to the far wall, and Shepard promptly destroyed the mech with a Warp attack. Two Watchers and four Crawler Alphas were next to get in their way, but a Singularity/Warp combo took care of them. On the top level, a shot from the Chief's Incineration Cannon took out another Watcher/Crawler group, while a Knight Commander with its own I.C. was taken down by an Overload and two sniper shots from Shepard. The duo hurried to the console and slotted Cortana in, and soon the final beam cut out, and the orange barrier protecting the Composer faded away.

'_And yet…,_' the Didact's voice echoed out, '_still you fail…_'

The Composer's beam fired 'up' out of the ship, striking Phoenix, Arizona far 'below'. The Chief quickly pulled Cortana out and put her back in his helmet… and was instantly glad he did, as a second later a stray energy bolt obliterated the terminal she'd been in, knocking him and Shepard back.

"We've got to hurry!" Cortana told them. "Get to the platform we came in on! There's a gravity lift that will take us up to a light-bridge leading to the Composer!"

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the massive chamber, the duel between Eve and Teana continued, with the orange-haired girl having the upper hand.

"You don't have to do this, T'Lesh" she told her opponent. "Lay down your arms and we can talk this out! Why won't you wake up and realize that your view on humanity is mistaken?"

"Shut up!" the Lucavi roared. "No species that could produce such monsters could _ever_-"

She was cut off as a powerful force grabbed her, holding her in place – a Midchildan Bind spell so powerful that it glowed bright enough to hurt to look directly at.

"If you will not hear the truth," Teana said as she walked closer to the struggling girl, "then I will _show_ it to you. You've been operating under the assumption that humanity cares nothing for what was done to you, and that what the Sol Confederacy did is considered 'normal'. Allow me to show you how wrong you are!"

Stepping close, Teana's Rinnegan eyes snapped open, gazing into Eve's eyes, and they pulsed with light… and Eve forgot how to breathe as things flowed – _poured _– into her mind. She could see, hear, and feel so many things from all the people in-system: pity and understanding for her, rage and disgust at the actions of the Sol Confederacy, people didn't even know her personally actually wanting to hunt down and imprison or kill the people who'd tortured her expressly to avenge her and the countless other victims, as well as many more emotions and thoughts… All this understanding, righteous anger, justice, altruism, desire for peace, and more, and all of it coming from _millions_ of human minds and Hearts…

Eve screamed, and as the Binds broke she staggered back, tightly clutching her head. Eyes wide with shock and horror and so many other things shed tears of various emotions, and the gasped feebly for breath, hunched over. Everything she'd thought, everything she'd believed, now faced with all this… With a look of panic and terror on her face, she opened a personnel-scale slipspace rift and leapt through it, retreating as if her life depended on it. Watching the rift close, Teana fell to one knee, panting as she let her eyes return to a basic Sharingan state; that psychic 'attack' had taken quite a bit out of her.

She then heard as a trio of Promethean Knights warped in, surrounding her. But then, a barrage of fire slammed into them from the side as the Master Chief and Commander Shepard arrived via man-cannon, easily disposing of the Knights. After helping her to her feet, the trio then headed for the nearby gravity lift, riding it up onto the waiting light-bridge. Cautiously they walked along it, approaching the bright orange beam shooting out from the tip of the Composer.

"You persist too long after your own defeat."

Hearing the Didact's voice, the trio looked around with weapons ready, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Come then, warri**or**s. Have your resolution."

Hearing the 3.5-meter-tall Forerunner warrior's armored feet set softly down on the light-bridge behind them, all three of the armored humans spun around to fire, but then the Didact waved his arm and they were telekinetically sent flying. The HAVOK dislodged from the Chief's armor, skidding across the bridge. After a second's pause, Teana engaged Mirage Longswords and began to charge at the Didact, while simultaneously Shepard fired a Warp blast and the Chief made a dash for the nuke. The Didact was having none of this, though; reaching a hand out, he caught all three in a telekinetic constraint field, their armors' shields flaring from the pressure as they were bound and lifted up, being suspended over the edge.

"So misguided…" the Didact said. "Humanity's imprisonment is a kindness…"

Unnoticed by the rogue Forerunner, however, a certain bodiless sapience tapped into her partner's unused yet still extant Linker Core, and made her move.

"In that case," Cortana's voice came from the Chief's helmet speakers, "you won't mind if I return the favor! Chain Bind!"

Small Midchildan-style magic rune-circles, bluish-purple in color, sprang up from the light-bridge floor around the Didact. Glowing chains of that same color shot up and out, wrapping around his limbs and neck and anchoring him to the floor. The Chief, Shepard, and Teana were dropped as the constraint field failed, grabbing hold of the light-bridge edge. As they pulled themselves up, the Chief rushed in, pulling his hand back and then slamming it into the Didact's chest just as Cortana's Bind was broken through. The Forerunner swatted the Chief away, hoisting him up in another constraint field…

…And then the Pulse Grenade the Chief had stuck into the Didact's chestplate went off. Reeling, stunned and injured by the blast, the Didact lost his balance and tumbled over the edge of the light-bridge, vanishing into the open orange-hued slipspace rupture below.

"Hurry!" Cortana shouted. "The nuke!"

As Shepard handed the Spartan the HAVOK warhead, the trio walked over to the edge. The Master Chief primed the nuke, initiating the countdown, and then tossed it into the Composer. But then, they heard an alarming sound, and turned as a sizable number of Promethean Knights warped in behind them, intent on stopping them from delivering the payload. Suddenly, though, there was a blur of motion as something appeared, followed by a barrage of dozens of powerful bright-pink mana bolts.

"Guys!" Nanoha floated down. "Are you okay?"

"How'd you get here?" Teana asked. "I didn't sense a ship-grade teleport…"

"Goku-san taught me his Instant Transmission technique a couple days ago" Nanoha replied. "Now hurry and grab hold of me! That nuke you just tossed has only 14 seconds left!"

The trio hurried over to Nanoha, making contact with her, and she placed her index and middle fingers to her forehead. In a flash of light and blur of motion, the quartet vanished. A second later, Jeff 'Joker' Moreau got a surprise as four figures in full combat gear appeared right behind his pilot seat, falling to the floor in a heap.

"What the-"

"Joker, get us out of here!" Shepard ordered. "The HAVOK's about to blow!"

Without asking questions, Joker complied. The _Normandy II_'s thrusters kicked in, rocketing the vessel away from the _Mantle's Approach_. The other ships followed suit, and a handful of seconds later a 30-megaton thermonuclear detonation went off inside the forward center of the ship. In addition to the damage directly from that, it also caused the ship's power core to fail catastrophically, triggering a chain reaction that gutted the entire vessel. The parts of the ship composed of hard-light abruptly disintegrated, leaving the surviving parts made of actual metal – much of them warped and molten – to drift away in all directions.

The surviving members of Mdama's ships that had accompanied the _Mantle's Approach_ beat an immediate retreat, fleeing through slipspace. Though it hadn't been costless, the battle had been won. Earth (with the unfortunate exception of the Phoenix, AZ area) was safe.

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**UNSC **_**Starshot**_**, in orbit over North American Protectorate**

A few hours after the destruction of the Didact's dreadnought and the Composer, Teana rested in one of the lounges aboard 'her' ship. She remembered the analysis that Shamal, Tsunade, and her three family members had immediately performed upon learning of her Rinnegan awakened by the Librarian. At the moment, the only Rinnegan-related powers she had were gravitic manipulation, and enhanced sight. There were various other abilities displayed by other wielders, but she couldn't yet perform them. By estimates, they would gradually 'awaken' for her one or two at a time, and it would take _years_ before she had complete access to all the myriad abilities granted by her new eyes.

"Hey, Boss" Marie greeted as she walked in, having a seat beside Teana. "Hell of a day, huh?"

"Hell of a _week_" Teana sighed. "From the end of the Reaper War, straight to this debacle, and my work's _still_ not over yet."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, in a little while I'm gonna be moving out with Subaru, Sasuke, and Naruto-kun to a new Realm. From what we can tell, it's another Earth, and it's under threat from some kind of interplanetary parasitic lifeform called 'Life Fibers'. We don't know much else; we'll have to figure it out when we get there."

"Jeez, what next? …You think whatever you did to Eve might stick?"

"I can't imagine not; you don't just shrug off and ignore something like that. Let's just hope it leads her on the right path. …The Master Chief should be doing his debrief with the UNSC Security Council right about now, and Commander Shepard's sticking around to help double-check the system for any of Mdama's people that might be hiding."

"Mmm. …Well, before you head out, let's get you something to eat. Come on."

**-**_**CHAPTER END**_**-**

Notice it says "Chapter End" and not "Book 28 End"…


	9. Losing Your Composer

**SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS**

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES

**-**_**CHAPTER START**_**-**

**Realm H4-L0 – Sydney, Australia – United Nations Space Command Headquarters**

**One day after the defeat of the Ur-Didact and the destruction of **_**Mantle's Approach**_** and the Composer**

MCPO John-117 stood before the numerous VIPs of UNSC High Command, as he wrapped up the post-mission debriefing. Of his companions in that epic journey, Cortana was helping Dr. Halsey fine-tune some ideas for future gear for the Spartan-IVs on _Infinity_, Commander Shepard was helping a UNSC task-force double-check the Sol System to make sure that none of Mdama's people or any surprises left by the Didact were still here, and Teana had already headed off on her next mission. Thus, he'd had to give his report alone.

"And what of the Didact?" a UNSC Army General asked him. "Your helmet-cam footage indicates he was killed…"

"I saw him subjected to a point-blank attenuation-field grenade detonation that knocked him into a slipspace fissure" the leader of the Spartan-IIs replied.

"But you did not see a corpse."

"No sir, General Hogan. The kill was not confirmed."

"Well, that makes the New Phoenix story harder to sell."

"If it's something that could happen again, you mean?" another officer asked.

"Yes. With no confirmed kill-"

"The Composer," the Master Chief interrupted, "the weapon that the Didact used, was destroyed. Earth is safe from any further such attacks."

"I understand that, Master Chief. My concern is selling that finality. To the public, I mean. We should take this offline. Humanity has been through too much. If we know there are no other active Forerunners, then there's no reason to tell people there was ever even one. We'll play it off as a terrorist attack by a belligerent ex-Covenant faction. An attack that the UNSC and its allies fended off via the perfectly-timed actions of our greatest heroes.

-_Break_-

"Master Chief," FADM Hood called out to the Spartan as he walked through the hall away from the briefing room, "do you have a moment?"

"Admiral Hood, sir. Of course."

"My apologies for the… lack of professionalism in the room back there. A lot of heads are spinning right now, and, well… Very few of our top brass seem the possess the skill of keeping their mouths shut until their brains have figured out what to say."

"Not my place to comment, sir."

Hood smiled wearily. "I wish it were, John. I wish it were. …We could make an officer out of you easily, you know. You'd had 'Admiral' without much of an argument from anyone."

"No offense, sir, but 'The Admiral' doesn't have quite the same ring to it."

"Heh. So you _do_ have a sense of humor."

Hood led the Chief into a small side room with a holo-table.

"Listen," the Fleet-Admiral said, "we've got a problem. And I'd appreciate it if you could 'advise' a team."

"Of course."

"Ivanoff Station was established to study Halo Zero-Three. There was a science team on the ground when the Didact attacked yesterday. The team was escorted by Spartan-II Fireteam Black, who reported all-clear on the Halo."

"Black Team is still operational?"

"Until an hour ago."

He keyed in a command, and a recorded audio file played – numerous panicky voices with the sound of weapons fire in the background:

"GAMMA HALO SCIENCE TEAM TRANSMISSION – ENCRYPTION ALPHA-97-ALPHA:"

"_What the hell are these things?-!_"

"_Not Covenant! Something else!_"

"_Appearing out of thin air! Slaughtering the Spartans-_"

The transmission dissolved into static.

"No images to go with the audio," Hood continued, "but they describe assailants appearing from nowhere…"

"Prometheans?"

"Sounds like."

"I should go with the team you're dispatching to Zero-Three."

"You just got back. I'd prefer you take a moment to catch your breath."

"The Prometheans _should_ be contained to Requiem. If we're encountering them somewhere else, I'd like to see it firsthand."

**-**_**Break**_**-**

**Khaphrae System, Approaching Halo-03**

"Gamma Halo science envoy, respond. I repeat, this is Spartan Blue Team calling Gamma Halo science envoy. Do you copy?"

The modified Longsword fighter approached the Halo, passing by the rubble that had once been part of the nearby planet; Ivanoff Station, now a ghost town showing significant damage, dominating one side of the viewport.

"Nothing, Chief" a female Spartan with short black hair and the numbers '087' on her armor's chestplate reported. "No response on any band."

"Keep trying, Kelly" John-117 replied.

Soon the Longsword flew in closer, setting down on a desert area of the ring's surface, not too far from the science team's last known coordinates. Four Spartans in full Mjolnir Mark-VII armor stepped out – John-117, Fred-104, Linda-058, and Kelly-087.

"Shame we couldn't bring Will along" Fred remarked.

"He and Grace are busy helping hunt down Husk holdouts on Equestria, from what I hear" Kelly said.

"Chief," Linda called, "tracks. Is there wildlife on this ring?"

"Nothing in the Ivanoff files…" Fred replied.

John looked down at the three-toed footprint in the sand, and his suit's computer found a match.

"Promethean Crawler print" he said. "They're here, alright."

"The tracks come from the north and head south" Linda said.

"The science team is to the south. We'll check there first."

After a while of trekking through the rocks and sand, they arrived at an outpost; there were no signs of life. Moving down into the area, they split, and soon John & Kelly made a gruesome discovery.

"All these corpses…" Kelly murmured. "They _used_ to be the science team."

"_Blue One?_"

"Go ahead, Fred" the Chief replied.

"_John… I found them. I found Spartan Black._"

Hurrying over to Fred & Linda's location, John winced inside his helmet as he beheld the remains of four of his old comrades. Margaret-053's and Roma-143's bodies were twisted and broken, their black-colored Mjolnir armor showing multiple instances of significant damage, each of which would have accompanied fatal blows. Victor-101's torso had been blasted open, revealing the half-vaporized remains of his organs, and Otto-031 had his chest caved in and had been decapitated.

"Jesus…" Fred breathed out. "Are Crawlers capable of _this_?"

"No" John replied. "This was something else. …Kelly, send Ops a sitrep. Science and Black are dead. Unknown assailant. We're investigating."

"On it."

"Everyone on me. Let's find the origin of the Crawler tracks and-"

Suddenly, the Spartan quartet got a very unpleasant surprise as half a dozen tall bipedal constructs warped in all around them, bodies and weapons silver with glowing orange portions.

"Knights!" John warned. "Weapons free!"

Kelly-087 immediately pulled free her M90A shotgun, blasting the Scattershot-wielding Promethean twice to kill it before it could fire its own close-range weapon. At the same time, a Lancer-type Knight rushed in with hardlight blade ready, but Fred-104 withdrew and activated a Sangheili plasma sword, parrying the Knight's blow and lashing out with a low kick that broke the war-mech's leg, and then following that with two slashes across the chest and a stab through the skull, vanquishing the Knight. With a blur of motion Linda-058 shouldered her BR85 rifle, firing burst-shots as fast as the weapon would allow. The Knight roared and swung at her as its shields were pounded, and she ducked and rolled, coming up behind it and continuing her attack. Soon the Knight's shields failed just as it turned to face her again, and it took an M6D round to the face that finished it off.

John-117 fired his MA5D assault rifle at a Knight as he charged at it, letting his shields soak up the fire from its Suppressor. He struck with the butt of his rifle, knocking the Knight back and de-shielding it, and then fired a barrage into its 'face'. As the Knight fell and dissolved, the Chief took its Suppressor, dual-wielding it with his human-made assault rifle against the other two Knights, wearing down their shields even as they wore down his. The other Spartans, having finished disposing of their targets, pitched in, and the wave of bullets quickly brought the last two Knights down.

"Linda," John said, "the Crawler tracks."

"This way."

After Kelly grabbed a fallen Knight's Lightrifle and some ammo, the quartet followed the tracks. After several minutes, they came upon a large pit that had been dug out, and at the center was a huge hole, perfectly square and composed of gleaming bluish-silver metal; from up here, they couldn't see the bottom. The four Spartans slid down the slope to the lower level of the depression.

"This is where they found the Composer and dug it out" Kelly pointed out.

"Everything's perfectly smooth down here" Fred said. "Armor telemetry doesn't show anyth-"

"Wait" Linda interrupted. "I've got eyes on a tunnel, northwest side."

"Let's have a look" John said.

They moved into the tunnel, taking a very long series of steps. For several minutes they descended, until soon there was a reddish-orange glow up ahead. And when they eventually reached the source of the light…

"Uh… Chief?" Fred said. "Is there anything you'd like to 'advise' us on right now?"

They slowly walked down the walkway down the center of the room – a room whose walls and ceiling were lined with hundreds of human-shaped figures, glowing faintly with an unnatural red light, their individual features erased and their expressions frozen in pain and terror. At the far end of the passage was an active slipspace portal, and cautiously the Spartan quartet passed through. They emerged into what looked like an old Forerunner city, heavily overgrown with plant life.

"We're not on the Halo anymore…" Kelly murmured.

"Forerunner portal system" John replied. "We could be anywhere in the galaxy. But as long as the portal's open, we have a way home."

"There's a light on in that tower ahead" Fred pointed out. "Whatever killed Black Team is probably there."

"Or _who_ever" the Chief replied.

"What do you mean, _who_ever?" Linda asked as the quartet leapt and slid down an embankment. "…You don't think the Didact's still alive, do you?"

"Only one way to find out…"

"Aside from the overgrowth," Kelly said as they walked along, "this place seems intact."

"This is odd" Fred spoke up. "A city like this, out in the open… Everything of this scale we've seen so far has been Halos or Shield Worlds."

"I can hear Dr. Halsey in my head" Kelly joked. "She'd be amazed by this place."

"Looks like a bigger avenue here" Linda pointed out.

"Huh… Didn't know the Forerunners went in for art" Fred remarked.

Up ahead were multiple large structures, blue and silver with orange cores, lined up in a row. It didn't take long for the Chief to recognize them.

"Composers…" he breathed out, shocked and with a little horror. "_Six_ Composers… One was bad enough, but this? …Why? Why here?"

"You tread, **hu**mans, in the Composer's Forge."

The quartet of Spartans spun around, weapons readied, and John felt less surprised than he'd expected to see none other than the Ur-Didact standing there, a noticeable mark on the left side of his chestplate, and an Activation Index clutched in his right hand.

"Weapons free" the Spartan leader ordered.

As the Spartans fired, however, the shields of the Didact's combat skin withstood the barrage, and the 3.5-meter-tall Forerunner raised an armored boot and then stomped it into the ground, releasing a shockwave that knocked the armored humans off their feet.

"Predictable…" the fallen Forerunner sneered. "See that which yo**u** fear, and attempt to kill it… even when your nightmare has already won."

As the quartet got back to their feet, they looked around as dozens – if not hundreds – of Promethean Crawlers, Watchers, and Knights arrived in the courtyard. The Didact stood back, lazily waving an arm forward, and the swarm of war droids charged at the Spartans. The quartet fought ferociously, scrapping several Prometheans per second, but there were always more. Soon, an unexpected new arrival entered the area: a Monitor.

"Oh my…" the floating silver & blue machine said in a rather unhappy synthetic-tinged voice. "This is quite unacceptable. We had an agreement, Didact! You have manufactured more of your Knights in direct violation of our compact."

"They will dispatch to Requiem soon enough, Monitor," the Forerunner General replied, "and your installation will be si**l**ent once more."

"This is not about the quietude of the Composer's Forge! These Prometheans are abominations – tortured souls encased against their will!"

As the Spartans continued to fight off the Prometheans, the Didact's clawed hand reached out, grabbing hold of the angry Monitor mid-rant.

"So quickly you accuse me of violating our agreement" the old warrior growled. "Where is _your_ portion of the bargain?"

"A… Arriving now, Didact" the now-frightened Monitor replied.

In the starry sky above, a gigantic slipspace rupture formed, and from it emerged a 10,000-kilometer ringworld – Installation 03.

"Perfect…" the Didact hissed. "Now, to repair the ring."

The Didact floated up onto one of the Composers, and the huge construct then floated free of its mounting, and shot up into the sky.

"What the hell?-!" Fred shouted, until his gazing at the spectacle was interrupted by a Crawler trying to claw his face off; he ripped it off and punted it into a Knight, knocking the larger construct over.

"Hello, humans" the Monitor floated down to the still-fighting Spartans. "I am 859 Static Carillon, keeper of the Composers' Forge. It is here where the Composer was designed and constructed."

"Didact has another Composer" John said as he used a stolen Incineration Cannon to destroy three Knights.

"Oh, he has an entire Halo now" the Monitor replied. "He is repairing it, you see, from damages caused by humans if he is to be believed. Although he seems to blame humans for rather a lot… I understand you have some disagreement with the Didact?"

"He killed millions of our kind-"

"Ah, so you do know the origin of these enemies you fight?"

"The Knights… They're the citizens of New Phoenix?"

"They are – or rather, once were – humans, freshly Composed. And therein lies my complaint. Their memories are being added to the whole… as was, of course, the plan when the Composer was built. But they also bring terror. They bring suffering, rage, and madness. This is _unacceptable_. Equally unacceptable to you, I imagine, is knowledge that once the Halo is repaired, Didact intends to fire it near your species' homeworld. He will burn your kind from the universe."

The Chief shared a look with his companions. "We need to get back to the portal _now_ – beat Didact to the Halo!"

"Please understand…" Carillon continued, flying alongside the Spartans as they made a fighting retreat through the city. "I do not care about the Human-Forerunner War. It raged centuries before my inception. It may well rage now, and for centuries more. Your world can burn, and while I will sigh at the loss, I will not care. What I _do_ care about is that he broke our compact. He brought his abominations _here_! He violated the sanctity of my home!"

With that, Static Carillon turned toward the approaching Knights, his blue eye glowing red just before he fired a massively powerful particle beam that punched clean through one Knight and kept going to badly damage a second. With the Monitor's fire added to their own, the Spartans' retreat quickly brought them back to the still-active rift.

"Can you deactivate the portal once we're through?" John asked as he covered Fred's and Linda's retreat through the swirling blue vortex.

"I will do what I can" Static Carillon replied, as a swarm of Sentinels emerged from the buildings and opened fire on the Prometheans. "Now hurry! You must stop the Didact! I will keep these monsters at bay!"

Hurrying through the portal, John joined his three comrades in retreating back through the tunnels, soon reaching the artificial pit that had held the original Composer. They had to then scramble up the sloped walls to get out, escaping just in time before the replacement Composer slammed down into position.

"You **a**re annoyingly persistent, humans…"

Fred, Linda, and Kelly spun around just in time to be knocked off their feet by a telekinetic shockwave. The ground trembled as the Didact's feet stomped forward toward their downed forms.

"I tire of your distr**a**ction…"

As the old Forerunner prepared to smite Kelly, John leapt onto his back, and then he cried out as the Master Chief's knife was driven through his helmet and into his right eye. With an angry roar, the Didact spun around and gripped the Chief by the helmet, lifting him up.

"Consistently," the Didact growled as his combat skin worked to stem the bleeding from his destroyed eye, "the opportunity to eliminate you, 'One-One-Seven', has been presented. Yet foolishly, I refused. No more!"

The Didact's massive hand began to squeeze, and the reinforced titanium composite of the helmet began to bend and warped, slowly crushed by the extreme pressure. John's visor cracked, partially exposing his left eye. The other three Spartans charged, but with his free hand the Didact telekinetically blasted them away. He then threw the Chief at Fred, knocking him over. Kelly dashed in, pulling free a Scattershot she'd scavenged, and started blasting the Didact from multiple angles. But then, his hand snapped out and grabbed the weapon, ripping it from her grasp and then using it as a club to bash her away.

"Something's wrong!" Fred reported. "He's shaking off direct hits!"

"I will not tolerate your continued disobedience" the Didact said in a low, fearsome tone as he grabbed Linda and slammed her into the ground so hard that the solid rock shattered beneath her. As he stood over Fred and John, the Didact plucked the titanium combat knife from his helmet's right eyepiece and tossed it away. Fred aimed a Boltshot up at him and fired a charged shot, but it seemed to do nothing.

"We…" the Didact said, raising his boot "are _done _here."

"I agree wholeheartedly."

A red-tinged particle beam crashed into the Didact's back, knocking him away. Before he could recover, Static Carillon initiated an involuntary emergency teleport, warping the Didact away. As the Spartans helped themselves to their feet, the Monitor turned to them.

"If you are going to fight a Warrior-Servant," he told them, "you must not give him the opportunity to attune his armor to your weapons!"

"Where is he now?" John asked.

"I suppose I must admit I have committed a… severe tactical error…" the Monitor said sheepishly. "I have placed him in the most secure location on the Halo."

"The control room…" the Master Chief sighed.

"It was that, or watch him slaughter you all. You would be dead and he would still reach the control room. I have expedited the inevitable by skipping the preventable."

"You said his armor adapted to the weapons" John remarked as he knelt down and picked up the Index that Didact had dropped. "I know a weapon he _can't_ adapt to."

**-**_**Break**_**-**

**Installation 03 Control Room**

The Didact groaned as he got to his feet, looking around and recognizing his location.

"The Monitor pretends to aid the h**u**mans," he spoke to himself, "but advances my plans instead? No… Too sim**p**le. There is something I do not yet comprehend."

"You're right" the Master Chief replied as he walked in, Index in hand.

"Where are your brethren?"

"They went ahead to our ship" the Chief replied as he walked past, heading up to the control panel. "This is between me and you."

"You carry no weapon."

"I carry _your_ weapon. I thought we might take a moment to talk."

"_Diplomacy_ in your final hour?"

"You killed millions of people. You killed four of my 'siblings'. You tried to kill _me_. I've tried to end you with blades, with guns, with explosives, by knocking you into slipspace… None of it has worked. …I'll bet _this_ does."

And then, before the Didact could react, the Master Chief slotted the Index into Halo-03's control panel.

"You would fire the Halo…" Didact spoke with slight shock, "just to eliminate _me_?"

"Yes. But then the Monitor reminded me that would also kill all animal life within 25,000 light-years. So he suggested a better plan…"

"What game are you playing, human?"

"Two-step process: first, I manually deactivate the safety protocols. Second… Carillon! Eject us, right into the planet!"

The entire Halo shook and rumbled as a perfectly-square chunk of the ring installation broke free and separated from the rest, heading down toward the dead Forerunner colony-world below. The Didact turned, preparing to lash out at the Chief, but the Spartan vanished in rings of golden light. Within seconds, the ejected control room slammed down into the planet… right on top of the five Composers, which all released their energy at once. The Didact's scream was cut off as his physical form was annihilated, turned into raw data and Composed.

Inside the Longsword watching from orbit, Static Carillon and the Master Chief appeared in two pulsing pillars of golden light.

"All according to plan…" the Monitor remarked. "Though, there were severe gravimetric anomalies following the ejection. Had I not taken a moment to stabilize the ring, it would be lost."

"Thank you for your-" John-117 started.

"No, thank _you_. After endless years overseeing a dead facility, I have found new meaning thanks to you. Farewell, Reclaimer. I will take the Halo now for repairs and safe hiding."

"Wait," Fred spoke up as the Monitor began to teleport out, "taking it where?"

But Carillon was already gone.

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

"We don't know where it went, Fleet-Admiral."

"Chief, you sound like you think you've failed. You _got_ the Didact! That's a damn fine day's work."

"I suspect it is safest to call him 'contained'."

"How about you? You okay, son?"

"Yes, sir."

"Hmm… Why don't you and Blue Team take a couple days' R&R? You've been at it nonstop for almost a week, and right on the heels of the Reaper War at that. Rest for a little while; you've earned it."

"…Understood, sir."

**-**_**BOOK 28 END**_**-**

And that's the end of that little adventure. Next time, we rejoin Teana as she and a few friends travel to yet another Earth in peril, to aid in the fight against a parasitic lifeform that threatens to consume the world.

Next time: Book 29 – Red Threads of Fate, in the _Lyrical Nanoha / Kill la Kill_ crossover section. See you then!


End file.
